The Fourth Journal
by Kiwi Lee Scipio
Summary: It's been a year since Weirdmageddon occurred and life has gone back to normal for our two sets of Pines twins, or has it? Dipper and Mabel are back to Gravity Falls, hoping for a more normal summer, abet expecting a normal level of weird, when they find a book stuck in a tree. Written in Stanford's handwriting but not by their Ford, what did these two get themselves into this time
1. Chapter 1 MysteryBook

Chapter 1

MysteryBook

I took a deep breath, glad to be smelling thick pine trees, goat poop, and oddly enough sea salt coming from Grunkle Stan's and Great Uncle Ford's parkas hanging on the line in the Mystery Shack's yard. Summer had started once again, our parents letting us come up to Gravity Falls, Oregon once more after our pleading all through-out the past school year.

I sat down in the old warn out sofa on the porch and looked out at the woods, waiting for Mabel so we could go out to town and find the old gang again. Not much had changed for me and Mabel. Sure I could now say I had had a proper girlfriend, though sadly that didn't last too long. She was stubborn that ghosts and cryptids didn't exist. I guess if I really wanna girl to like me I just won't be able to tell them about this part of my life. Unless I got lucky and found someone who came from weirdness.

Mabel still made her sweaters, which was why she was still unpacking. Between the yarn for new sweaters and her pile of favorite ones, I expected to be waiting for a while. Though her sweaters now came in an assortment of styles. Through-out the school year she had learned how to add a hood, a few different pocket styles, and even a sweater dress.

I hope Wendy and the group haven't changed all that much. I tried to control it but I already felt my face heat up as I wiped my hands on my shorts. She's 16, I'm 13. Right now those three years made her too old for me, but I can't help it.

"You ready?" Mabel asked, getting me to jump in the seat.

I jumped to my feet and turned to see the girl who had appeared, closing the door behind her. Today she was wearing a new sweater she had made on the bus ride here that was blue with the town's skyline wrapping around her. The water tower was promptly in the front though she couldn't get it to read Gravity Falls. "I just texted Tambry, they're waiting at Greasy's Diner."

"Let's take the short cut through the woods," I offered, the lay out of the town coming back to me like I'd been here yesterday. I lead the way into the forest the front of the house pointed to, knowing the diner was just through the woods.

"Are you gonna show Great Uncle Ford what you've been working on?" Mabel asked, following me as I walked the familiar path.

"Well, yeah," I shrugged my shoulders. "I mean, sure we don't have anything nearly as awesome back home but I think he'd like to see what research I did on the supernatural around the world."

"Good, than you can bore someone else with your nerd talk," Mabel said, giving me a punch in the shoulder. "I know waaaay too much about firebirds and swamps now, thanks to you."

I smiled, rubbing where she had punched. "Yeah, ok. So I _might've_ gotten a little obsessed with that one," I held up my hands in defense. "But can you blame me? I might've figured out something no one else did about it-"

"That the swamp creates it for its own protection," Mabel drowned over my voice. "Bro-bro, doesn't your mind _ever_ take a… break?"

I glanced back at my sister only to see she had stopped, looking up in the trees. I stopped walking and fully turned around. "What?"

"There's a shiny in the tree," Mabel stated.

I walked back to stand next to her and looked up to where her line of sight lead me, surprised to see the sun bouncing off of something stuck in a crook of the tree's branches.

"I'm gonna get it," Mabel announced, running to the trunk of the tree.

I opened my mouth to protest, knowing everyone was already waiting on us, but my curiosity of what it could be got the better of me. I kept my eye on Mabel as she shimmied up the tree, holding on to Wendy's hat as I had to tip my head farther and farther back as I stepped closer to the tree. I would rather she not fall at all but if she did she'd have at least something softer to land on than the ground.

Mabel made it up to the first sturdy branch and made the climbing look easy as she went from branch to branch to the strange shiny thing. She got to the branch that the thing was lodged in and struggled a moment before getting it out of the tree. "It's a book!" Mabel called down.

"Well toss it down," I called up.

I saw her hold it out, about to drop it only to shake her hands. "It's a little sappy," Mabel warned just as it left her hands.

I quickly caught it only to grimace at what she meant. The book was a soft leather bound book, held closed with a clasp to make it look similar to Mabel's diary. On the front was a purple rock, the thing that had reflected the light to get our attention in the first place. But it was covered in sap and spider webs, as if it had been up in the tree for years. I ran my thumb over the clasp, noticing sap held it locked for the moment. I looked around, hoping for a puddle with the closest river in the opposite direction from Greasy's Diner, but let out a sigh. It hadn't rained for at least a week up here.

Mabel dropping to the ground got my eyes to glance back at her who now stood next to me. "So what's in it?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "When we get to the diner I'll clean it up so we can open it."

"It and me both," Mabel laughed, looking at her hands to show they were covered in sap. She looked up at me, a smile I know all too well on her face.

Oh no. No, no, no, no, no!" I quickly ran away from her just in time to miss her wiping her hands at me. I turned to run backwards, keeping an eye on her as she lunged for me again. I sidestepped out of her way only to trip over a root and fall flat on my butt. I held the book up as a shield only to feel a slap on my arm.

"Sticky twins!" Mabel called out, her hand stuck to my arm.

"Fine, sticky twins," I let out a laugh. "Help me up."  
She pulled her hand off my arm before being able to hold out her other hand for me to grab. I pealed a hand off of the book, hoping the layer of sap on my hand would somehow cancel out her layer of sap as I grabbed her hand and got back to my feet only to let go and find our hands stuck.

"I hate sap."

"I think it's fun," Mabel said, turning to pull me along without my feet's consent. "Come on! They're waiting for us!"

Finding my footing, I ran to keep up as my hand was drug behind Mabel. With Mabel in the lead, we made it to the diner in record time, leaving me out of breath.

"Can I- have," air! "my hand back?" I asked, finally able to slow down now that we had come out of the forest just next to the gravel parking lot. Book stuck to my one hand, sister to the other, I stood still for a moment to get my breath back as my lungs felt like they were on fire as Mabel fought to free her hand.

"It's no use, we're stuck," Mabel sighed.

"Let's see if Lazy Susan'll let us use the kitchen sink," I said, leading Mabel at _walking_ speed inside.

"There you are!" Wendy's voice called out, instantly sending heat to my face.

"Oh, he-hey Wendy," I called back, looking to see the red head still wearing my pine tree hat. She sat at a booth across from Robbie and Tambry while Lee, Nate, and Thompson messed around with the jukebox. I held up the hand that wasn't stuck to my sister to wave only to also wave the book still stuck to me.

Wendy let out a laugh. "Awesome, a new adventure for the summer."

"Called sap," Mabel announced. "Lots of sap."

"Come on," I tugged at Mabel's hand stuck to mine. The sooner we were unstuck the less likely I'd end up embarrassing myself. We walked over to the side of the counter just as Lazy Susan walked out of the kitchen.

"Hi kids! So y'all back in town already?" Lazy Susan asked, her good eye looking straight as us. "And already getting into mischief, huh?"

"Yap," Mabel nodded her head with a smile.

"Can we use the kitchen sink?"

"Sure," Lazy Susan pushed open the door to the kitchen, letting us in. "Boris'll be surprised to see you."

I followed Mabel into the kitchen, the first time I'd been back here. I'd seen through the widow to the counter and eating area so I knew to expect the grill to be just to the side of the window and followed Mabel around the shelves and fryers to the large sink.

"Mabel! Dipper!" the large man called out, walking out of the freezer with two bags of French fries in his arms. He kicked close the door and sat down the bags on a counter as Mabel turned on the water with her elbow as to not get stuck on anything else. "Glad to see you all back. So what's gonna happen this summer?"

"Hopefully nothing like last summer," I laughed, feeling the sap leave my hand stuck to Mabel's as she started scrubbing away. How I was going to get the sap off the book or my other hand still hadn't been figured out. I noticed a roll of brown paper towels and thought I'd start with them.

"So how was your last year of middle school?" Boris asked, slicing open a bag of fries. He dumped the fries into a metal basket before lowering it into the oil.

"Mrs. Peterson threw us a party," Mabel said, her voice loud enough to be heard over the oil and running water as she got our hands apart.

I used my now free hand to grab some of the paper towels, ripping off a handful, and got them wet to start and work on separating my hand from the book as Mabel told the tail of pizza and cupcakes from Mrs. Peterson. I was going to miss that lady, she made both homeroom and history interesting.

"So have you gotten your classes for next year?" Boris asked, getting me to realize I had missed what Mabel was saying.

"Well, of course she's got home ec," I said, throwing away the paper towels to grab more.

"He found a class on computer sciences," Mabel offered.

"Getting into normal people's mysteries, huh?" Boris let out a laugh as he pulled out the done fries and poured them into two paper baskets, adding salt.

I gave him a shrug, not sure what I wanted to do yet. I knew I would love to follow Great Uncle Ford and his research of the unusual, or how he put it, the Grand Unified Theory of Weirdness, but Mom wanted me to have a more normal idea of what to do in life.

"Hey I gotta go deliver this. If you need me, holler," Boris said, grabbing the two paper baskets of fries before walking out of the kitchen.

"Finally!" I announced, prying my hand off of the book.

"I'll clean it," Mabel offered, taking a damp paper towel to grab the book from me.

As we worked in silence, part of me wondering what was going through Mabel's mind to make her so silent, my ears traveled to a conversation out in the eating area.

"Tambry, you're doing it again," Wendy's voice said.

"Come on, you stupid machine!" Robbie's voice overlaid what Wendy said next, getting laughter from Nate.

"You don't think time travel's _actually_ possible?" Tambry asked, her voice waving.

"What?" Wendy asked with a laugh. "I think we would've found out if Ford or old man McGucket created a time machine."

"I don't know…" Tambry took a moment before continuing. "Do you remember when we were five and you had a crush on the kid with the hat?"

"No, but then again I don't remember meeting Robbie and you said I wanted to kill him," Wendy offered.

"You're wearing the hat that kid wore," Tambry said.

"Wait, what?"

I glance out the window to see she had taken off my hat to look at it. She threw it back on her head and said, "So, and Stan sells these in his shop. He might've sold them then."

"But last year was the first time he got them," Tambry pointed out.

I bit my bottom lip, glad to focus on getting the last of the sap off my hand. "Tambry remembered."

"Huh?" Mabel asked, throwing away another wad of papers.

I turned off the faucet and repeated, "Tambry remembers us going back in time."

I looked at her, watching her dry off the book and mess with the clasp to find it unstuck. "Ok?" Mabel offered. "It wasn't like a secret, was it?"

"No, I guess not."

"Here, finally unstuck," Mable said, dropping the paper towels in the trash. She opened the book and stared at the first page. "Uh, Dipper."

I took a step to her side and stared at what I saw. "What?" I took the book out of her hand to look closer and sure enough, it was his handwriting. "Property of Stanford Pines. Volume 4, finem mundi. End of the world?"

"Let's go show them," Mabel said, pulling on my arm.

I started flipping through the pages, confused by what I found as Mabel pulled me out of the kitchen. The dates were full with years from the 80s and 90s, diagrams of weapons and other devices, and plants and animals I hadn't seen before all was written out before me.

"So what's with the book?" Wendy asked as I slid in the seat next to her. My mind was so engrossed with the book, I didn't think too much about her.

"The fourth journal," I said. I glanced up to see the guys coming back to the table at what I said.

"Your great uncle wrote another one?" Nate asked, confused.

"I don't know," I admitted, laying the book on the table to show them the first page. "It's in his handwriting but…" I flipped the page to read the first entry. "April 4, 1988."

"I thought he went into the portal in '84," Wendy put in. "At least, that's what Soos said."

"Yeah, that's how I remember the story too," Mabel nodded her head.

"Time has drastically changed since I wrote in the last of these journals. Gone is the time of machine made paper and hard back leather books," I read aloud. "The journal now in my hands as well as yours was made by my good friend's wife. The accounts of the world wide Weirdmageddon are recorded in Journal 3." I stopped and looked at the people around me. "It wasn't worldwide."

"Keep reading, man," Lee ordered, leaning against the back of the booth seat.

"So I have no wish to write them down again. As of now, Sue B is running the governments of the world-"

"Sue B? Who's that supposed to be?" Robbie interrupted.

I shook my head, not sure, as I continued, "and our little resistance is growing in number. Four years ago I stared working on a way to take her down but my love of the weird won't end nor will the amount of weird creatures drawn from the rift to this town."

"Too weird, dude," Thompson said.

"And this was dated when?" Robbie asked.

"1988." I flipped through pages of creates and plants I had never seen only to stop on a page with a strange empty circle.

"That's definitely a black light page," Tambry stated.

"I left mine in the shack," I admitted, leaning the pages away from my face to see indentations where Ford had bared down hard.

"You're here all summer, you can figure it out another day," Nate threw off, diffing a hand into his pocket. He pulled out three tickets and handed two to Mabel as I closed the journal. "Last month they finished building the rink, we got together and got you two tickets for skates."

"Oh cool! Thanks!" Mabel exclaimed.

I stashed the journal in my inside vest pocket and took the ticket from my sister. "Skates? As in roller blades?" I asked.

"Yeah. You do know how to skate, right?" Wendy asked.

No.

"Uh, yeah. Of course," I lied. "It's just..,, been a while."

Mabel threw a look at me but I tried to ignore her.

Esktr S Yohvyzw al gfkjbu lmac. Llv bftskfcv Umcj uvwbfw qweiq buc kzb fha ncbfg ruk sl e ecdyzkoc.

AN: Ok, any of you with a map of Gravity Falls will notice the… river problem. I honestly thought the river was in the other direction. And then I got Dipper's and Mabel's Guide to Mystery. Oh well.

Dipper: But you've moved the river.

AN: So, now the river's on the other side of the shack.

Dipper: But… but you can't do that!

AN: It's my Gravity Falls. The river location will tell the real Dipper he's in a parallel world.

Dipper: But I'm the real Dipper.

AN: Are you?

Danny: Dude, welcome to something worse than the Mindscape. Welcome to Kiwi's Mind.

Link: Danny, not helping.

AN: While they help Dipper get accustom to my head, hope you like the codes added, there will be one for each chapter but they won't all use the same code or even same cypher. That's what you gotta figure out.


	2. Chapter 2 GreatFun

Chapter 2

Great Fun

"Come on, Dipper!" Wendy called out, the last to leave the table I sat at with our shoes.

Once again I was relacing the skates. Skating was Mabel's thing, and she did ice skating, which is why she was going around the wooden rink on roller blades and here I was with four wheeled skates. I let out a sigh as I finished tying my skates for the fourth time and knew I couldn't procrastinate any longer. Holding on to the table I managed to stand up. I looked both ways, careful not to run into anyone else walking the outside of the rink, and let go of the table to make my way to the outer wall. Carpet was ok, A few steps and I could hold onto the wall as Wendy and Nate were passing me with Thompson holding onto their hands.

"Now!" Wendy ordered, the two flinging Thompson forward as they let go.

Thompson went forward fast only to try and turn, turning too sharply and fell over with a scream. He sat up, laughing, as Wendy and Nate rolled by him, laughing.

"That was wicked, Thompson!" Wendy called, rolling to a stop next to him. She held out her hand and easily pulled him to his feet, letting Thompson rolled away. She looked towards me and waved for me to come over. "You gonna hang out there all day?"

"Just give me a bit to get used to it," I said. To my dismay, she turned to roll towards me, stopping as she stepped onto the carpet next to me.

"Come on, man," Wendy said, grabbing my elbow.

Instantly I lost my balance, sending me grabbing for the wall so I didn't fall to the floor.

Wendy let out a laugh, only getting my face to heat up. I was starting to regret coming here at all as I found my footing with the help of the wall and her holding onto my arm.

Once I got back to standing, Wendy ordered, "Ok, point your toes forward." She pried my hand off the wall and held onto my hands.

I did as she ordered, looking down at my feet as she pulled me along the carpet.

"Don't look at your feet, look where you're going," Wendy offered.

I looked up, making sure to look a little higher than eyelevel so my face didn't go any redder then it already was. She pulled me onto the wood floor and I felt my legs strain at keeping me upright.

"Bend your knees."

I did as she said and realized it made balancing a lot easier. We rounded the corner, Nate, Lee, and Mabel racing past us. We got back to going straight and Wendy let go, leaving me to my own balance.

"There you go," Wendy smiled, skating away backwards. "Now push forward with one foot to get yourself moving."

I took a step only to feel the foot still on the ground to shoot behind me. I quickly made a grab for the short wall around the rink to save myself.

"It takes a bit of practice," Wendy offered as I regained my balance.

"Come on, Dippin' Sause!" Mabel called out as she skidded to a stop next to us. "Let's go fast!"

Before I could protest, Mabel grabbed my arms and pulled me behind her as she sped around the rink. I leaned back and tried my best just to stay on my feet as Mabel let out a laugh.

"Mabel!" I called out, getting her to turn and look at me. "Can I just sit at the table and guard our shoes?"

Mabel's face fell a bit before a pity smile appeared on her face. "Sure, bro-bro."

Thankfully she pulled me more at walking speed back to the break in the wall and helped me over to our table. I sat down with a sigh, trying to find a comfortable spot for my wheeled feet. I gave her a smile, knowing the look she gave me before she rolled back onto the rink.

I looked around the wooden rink and quickly found Robbie and Tambry skating together, apparently they were still a couple. Lee, Nate, and Thompson were trying to pull off a crazy stunt, the three of them holding onto one another as they spun in the center. Mabel had just joined them, changing, "Thompson! Thompson!"

"Sorry man, I thought you'd like this."

I jumped in my seat, not noticing Wendy roll up as she leaned against the table across from me. "Skating's just not my thing," I admitted. "You can go back. Have fun."

"You sure?" Wendy asked as she stood straight.

I gave her a smile, my eyes traveling up to my hat she still wore. I watched as she turned around and skated back out to the rink, her red hair flowing out behind her as she flew over to where Mable was, joining the chant with Robbie now. A moment later Thompson let go of both Lee and Nate, sending them in opposite ends of the rink,

I smiled, glad they were having fun, and in the back of my mind I was glad to get out of skating for two reasons. The obvious, and the fourth journal burning a hole in my vest. I pulled it out and opened it up only to stare in surprise at the page I had flipped to. It was the page with only a circle but in the black light of the rink the page was crammed pack. The circle now held an eyeball and a triangular necklace. It had arms and legs similar to Bill and was holding an umbrella. At the top, the page was titled "Susan B Anthony Arson of Dimensions".

I tilted the book closer to the light, the words lit in front of me giving me chills.

"From what I could understand from Bill in his last moments, Sue B is the one who destroyed their two dimensional home. She was a higher class circle and he was just a lowly triangle but the two were the only survivors. Now Sue B is going from dimension to dimension, destroying everything in it. She is toying with the governments of the world but when she gets bored she will destroy this one as she has with the past. But we will be ready. F and I are working on the Quantum Dissolver (as diagramed later in this book). If only we could figure out a way to keep it from overheating once powered on. As it stands now, this gun will destroy both what it is pointed at and what is holding it. Though if Sue shows her face in this town, I'll use it anyway."

I flipped farther through the journal, quickly finding the Quantum Dissolver. I could easily make out two handwriting's notes. The F, who I guessed to still be Fiddleford McGucket, who helped Ford was not the Fiddleford Great Uncle Ford worked with in the past. Instead he was more like the Fiddleford of today, not caring about what people saw him as and more ready for the weird. Just on the page about the Quantum Dissolver, Fiddleford had wrote "We brought this creature here, we'll take it out" which Ford, overtop in invisible ink corrected, "No, I alone am to blame".

I flipped farther into the journal only to find the invisible ink to stop as Fiddleford took over writing. A page dedicated to names stopped me. I found Mabel Pines quickly, the list organized by last names so that her name was surrounded by Mom, Dad, and Stanford. Why wasn't my name here? I flipped back a page, seeing the list started there and I felt my blood run cold.

The Great Gravity Falls Massacre of 2007

The names written below are of those who didn't survive the rebellion.

My eyes opened wide as I looked through this page. Dan, Jennifer, and Wendy were listed, Jennifer I took to be Wendy's mom. I saw more names I recognized from around town as I took in all the names. Toby Determined, Nate Elliot, Tambry Marshall.

My eyes froze at the Pines. My name and Stan's was missing.

"You ok?"

I looked up, surprised to see Mabel as she sat down across the table from me.

"You look like you've seen a ghost. Again."

"You could say that," I said, now noticing my heart was loud enough to be heard over the music playing. "I think this journal's from a parallel dimension."

"Really?"

"Well it would explain why Weirdmageddon took place in the 80s, why we have no idea who Sue B is, and why you're dead."

"Dead?" Her face fell at hearing the word.

I turned the journal towards her and she took it, looking through the open page.

She quickly found our family names, her eyes growing wide when I assumed she found her name with our parents and Ford. She flipped back a page, reading the same header I had. "The Great Gravity Falls Massacre?" she asked, her voice small.

"It's not our dimension," I tried to offer as I took the journal out of her hands. "We're alive, Mom and Dad are alive, and so is Great Uncle Ford." I closed the journal and stashed it in my vest, done with the book for now. I took in the state of my sister, her braces showing as she fought against the things she's just read. She needed a hug. Holding onto the table, I stood up and, not gracefully in any term of the word, made it so I sat next to her. I threw my arms around her, not sure what I could do, but I knew if I ever had to live knowing something had killed her, I'd…

I closed my eyes as she hugged me back. I would get revenge on anyone who hurts my sister.

Zyi Gkjug Mievbys Sgcps Ffmfgtve pfm pglwew gs Fzrrfhwx'f unr ctwyykjwnxxm. Gnv kug boyr jxieq qbxb.


	3. Chapter 3 AgateCrystal

Chapter 3

Agate Crystal

"Mmmm, you sure you don't want some, Dipper?" Mabel sked as we headed back to the Mystery Shack, walking along the long driveway. After the rink we had hit the small convince store that had finally took the old Dusk 2 Dawn location. The ghosts were gone but it still freaked me out to be inside once more. Mabel had gotten herself the new Sweet 'n' Tart Tube, which was just a tube of sour gel and was working on it as we walked.

"I'm good," I said, glad she was smiling again. It didn't take her long to get back to herself after she went back to skating with everyone.

As we got closer to the shack I could make out Soos sitting on the porch sofa.

"Dudes, I wouldn't go in there," Soos warned as we stepped onto the porch.

"Arh! I just found another one!" Stan's voice yelled loud enough we could hear him through the closed door. A door slammed a wall as he yelled, "I can't stand your angels watching me in the _bathroom_!"

Abuelita's voice could be heard yelling back but I couldn't make out what she said.

"Is Ford in that as well?" I asked, wanting to show him the journal.

"He's hiding in the basement, but I wouldn't go in there yet."

"It's been that bad?"

Mabel poked her head into the door, making it easier to hear Stan yell, "Well if your creepy angels make it into the museum, they're going in the trash!"

"A tit e voya tirar a la basura!"

"What was that!?"

Mabel slowly closed the door, already expecting words we weren't supposed to repeat. "Abuelita does love her angels."

"Have you fixed that hole I made last year?" I looked at Soos, already expecting his answer. It was bad enough that I fell through from under the house to the basement.

"Yeah dude," Soos let out a laugh. "Squirrels were trying to make the basement their home. You wanna drink?"

"Sure." I sat next to Soos as he reached over to the other side of the couch and pulled out three Pitt Colas. He handed one to me and one to Mabel as she took the space between us. "So what'd we miss?"

"Dude, Lazy Susan got engaged," Soos started with.

I almost lost my sip of drink, covering my mouth to catch the drips running down my chin.

"Aw! Who? Do we know 'em?" Mabel asked, a large smile on her face.

"Ivan, dude."

"Who?" I asked, the name not familiar.

"Ivan Wexler, oh right dude!" Soos smacked himself on the forehead. "McGucket fixed his memory. He went by Toot-Toot McBumbersnazzle, you know. The dude from the Blind Eye."

"Oh, the guy with all the tattoos on his head!" I realized.

"His real name's Ivan Wexler?" Mabel asked.

Soos nodded his head as he added, "He sang her a love song as a Christmas present, it was a little weird but she liked it."

"Did anyone record it? I'm so looking that up," Mabel smiled.

Soos let out a laugh. "Dude! Dude, you'll never believe it. The Oregon Ducks played here right after thanksgiving."

"Yeah, I heard about that," I added, remembering the news. I wasn't a big fan but Travis is so all I heard about till Christmas was him mad he couldn't go and see them in the town I had spent the summer in. "Nothing… weird happened to them, right?"

"No, but dude, I got them to sign my hat. I have to show it to you when we can go inside," Soos said before taking a sip of his drink.

In the silence I noticed something not coming from within the shack. "Hey guys, you hear that?" I asked.

"No, what dude?"

"They're done!" Mabel jumped to her feet. She rushed inside, letting the screen door close itself with a bang behind her.

"You'll have to show me the hat later," I said, taking a sip from my drink before jumping off the sofa. I hurried into the shack and rushed to the snack machine. A1BC3. The horrors of if someone had ever been indecisive trying to get their snacks popped into my head as the air compression released, opening the door behind. I pulled it open and rushed down the stairs, pulling the snack machine behind me shut. After punching in the code for the elevator, I headed down to the second floor and found Ford writing something at his desk.

I glanced around his privet study, the room feeling barren without all the Bill artwork. I was glad we burned all of it before we left last summer but now the room felt empty. Well, all but one wall which now held photos and notes taped to it. He needed a corkboard. Made stringing ideas together a lot easier.

"Great Uncle Ford?" I asked, worried I'd startle him.

Ford stopped writing a moment before turning to look at me. His appearance still made me second guess myself. He'd gotten a new pair of glasses after a, what'd he call it? A fetmiforotte attacked them up in the Artic. Don't know what it is but he said he had pictures. Couldn't wait to see them. But that wasn't the biggest change. He'd grown a beard. It wasn't long, I could still see the top of his turtle neck sweater.

"Dipper! Are they done yet?" Ford asked, capping his pen.

"I think so, at least until Stan finds another angel," I offered with half a smile.

"I might just make my bed down here then," Ford laughed. "I'm glad you're here, though." Ford stood up and walked over to the trunk under the wall of notes. He knelt down and opened it up so he could rummage through the contents.

I stepped closer, curious what was inside. Most of what I could see was just his cloths. I could make out some sort of pendant and a hand sized tooth in a plastic box but nothing too noteworthy till he pulled out what looked like a wooden box.

"This comes from a dimension where music was out-lawed for giving people ideas of free thought," Ford explained, turning to hold the box out to me. It was about the size of two Sibling Brother books stacked on top of each other. I took it in my hands and lifted open the lid to find a thin layer of glass protecting the inner workings of the music box. "We found it at Dundas Harbour while we were looking for the Jonuna, which is another story I think you'll enjoy. It looks like it was thrown to their incinerator but found a natural portal between dimensions instead."

I closed the lid and looked the box over. Sure enough, the back and bottom looked a bit charred. I turned the crank and opened it back up to hear a tune I couldn't recognize. I looked up at Ford and asked, "Any idea what the song is?"

Ford shook his head. "I didn't stay in that dimension too long. I had already learned what could happen if I ran into a parallel me so I didn't want to risk it."

"Still, it's a cool gift. Thanks," I offered as I shut the box. I reached to put it in my pocket only to remember the journal. "Oh yeah. Me and Mabel found this," I said, pulling the journal out as I swapped what sat in the pocket. "I think it also came from another dimension."

Ford took the journal, poking a figure at the rock on the cover. "Agate?"

"A gate?"

"No, agate, one word. It's the rock they put on the cover," Ford explained. "It's supposed to give strength and courage to find out the truth and accept circumstances." He looked at me and added, "Back in high school I'd gotten into a rock club. I never gave too much on crystals actually having effects on the body but some have proven true."

I kept my mouth closed as he looked back at the book. He flicked open the clasp and turned to the first page only for his eyes to widen in surprise. He flipped through the pages, skimming over what was written. He stopped on a page, mouthing out the words he read. After a moment he asked, "How far have you read?"

"All I did was skim a few pages," I admitted.

"And how much do you know about the multiverse?" Ford asked, flipping a few more pages.

I wiggled my hand as I shrugged. "The basics, I guess. Mostly just from TV, though."

Ford closed the journal and looked straight at me. "To start out, time is not a line. It isn't straight, it doesn't flow from point A to point B. It's more like a tree. Events branch off of it, creating their own tree and it repeats over and over again until there are infinite realities. If you can think it, there's a reality where it's either happened or is happening."

My mind flashed back to when Wendy and I had driven through those weirdness bubbles. The bird people, the very detailed world, the sausage people, it all could exist out there, somewhere.

Ford opened the journal back up and said, "This is from a dimension I'm glad I never found. One of the few only outcomes where she survived."

"She? You mean Sue?" I asked. "You know her?"

Ford nodded his head. "Of her. Thankfully I've never met her in person." He reached to his desk and picked up a black light flash light. Shinning it on the book, he found what I already did, UV writing. "She finds pleasure in destroying dimensions. She found that out when she destroyed the two-dimensional reality she and Bill were born in. Their dimension where the Bill we know came from, she died in her own destruction. In the reality connected to this journal, she and Bill both survived."

"So us having the journal could mean she's already destroyed that Earth," I realized.

"There could be a number of reasons it ended up here," Ford admitted as he clicked off the flash light. With a sign he added, "Though that is the most plausible." He closed the journal, not bothering to clasp it shut, and handed it to me. "Go through it. Find out if there's anything we might be able to use."

"Yes sir." I gave him a smile, glad to be of some use this summer.

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AN: For those of you who wish to copy down my code and, oh, I don't know, use an internet decoder, here's a way to do so. On Windows (don't know if it works similar on Mac's, Apple has always hated me so whenever I go into an Apple store and start messing with the demo products, they always stop working. It's kinda fun. Mobile readers, you're just screwed, like I am whenever I read someone else's story and there's code but the app won't let you copy anything so you still have to scrounge around for a piece of scrap paper to scribble it down): Ctrl+U or right click over the story and click on the thing that says "View Page Source". Scroll down till you find the story part in all the code written here and find the one line of code you need, you know, the one I wrote important secrets in. Here you can copy to your hearts content. Of course copying this chapter's code and putting it into the decoders I know isn't going to help you all that much cause you kinda need something… else. Though I will give you a hint: It is cannon to the show as far as I know.


	4. Chapter 4 Squall

Chapter 4

Squall

When confronted by the humped back feral Eleven Lion, do not move. There is a blind spot in its field of view in between each head, similar to the blind spot in the more deadly lepchar. The Eleven Lion seems to be a mutational birth defect after breading between our Earth mountain lion and a similar type of cat brought by the rift.

The lepchar, on the other hand, is due to chemical radiation. I believe it started out as a simple harmless bunny but years of drinking tainted water has resulted in an offshoot of predatorily rabbit. Its large teeth and wide jaw has been known to rip its prey apart but its eyes give it a disadvantage and a blind spot directly in front of its face.

"Dinner!"

I looked up, watching Stan bring out a pot pie to sit on the table just in the kitchen. I closed the journal and sat it on the doily covered t-rex skull before jumping to my feet. By the time I took my seat, Mabel was already there, taking her slice and grabbing a plate from the pile.

"Dipper, can you go get Soos and his grandma?"

"Sure." I stood back up and went down the hall to find Stan's old room and the room we had found the wax figures now taken by Abuelita and Soos. I knocked on Soos' door and called out his name before sticking my head in. I had seen Soos' room back in the old house and not much had changed in the move but no Soos. I stepped out and knocked on Abuelita's door. "Dinner's ready," I said, pushing open the door.

"Thank you. I be there in a minute," Abuelita said, drawing my eyes to her sitting in a rocking chair, crocheting something.

I gave her a polite smile before backing out of the room. I hadn't found Soos but maybe he heard Stan. I went back to the kitchen, worried Mabel might eat my portion of the pie as well but glad to see Stan had made sure she waited for everyone else by getting her to set the table.

I quickly stepped out to the porch, wondering if that's where he still was only to freeze as his scream came from the gift shop. I ran around the shack and pulled back the door, finding the large man fighting with a strange cross between a squirrel and a bird. I rushed forward, grabbing for the squirrel's wings. With a few screams of my own mixed with Soos', we were able to each grab hold of a wing and hold it between us as Ford, Stan, and Mabel just now appeared from the house.

"It's the squirrels, man," Soos said, keeping as far as he could from the fighting squirrel hanging between us while still holding onto its wing. "They're after revenge!"

"I'll get my gloves," Ford said, quickly turning on his heal and rushing back into the house.

"Aw, can we keep it?" Mabel asked, coming closer to poke the creature.

"No," I answered.

"You've already gotta cat and a pig. Your parents would kill me, heck, I'd kill me," Stan said, grabbing Mabel's shoulder to pull her back a safe distance away from the thing hanging between Soos and me.

It struggled to flap its wings, breaking free of Soos' grip, leaving me the only one holding onto it. "Soos!" I called out as I tried to keep it as far from myself as I could while still holding it. I felt a few scratches but held on tighter. This stupid squirrel wasn't gonna get away from me. I managed to get ahold of its other wing in my free hand, holding it so the squirrel was facing away from me.

"I found a cage!" Ford called out as he barged back into the gift shop. He sat the dog crate Waddle's had ridden in on the way here so that the opening pointed upwards and, with gloved hands, wrapped the squirrel in its own wings. "Ok Dipper. You can let go. As soon as I get my hands free of the cage, shut it."

I nodded my head, making sure Ford had hold of the squirrel before stepping over to the cage. I took hold of the cage door and watched as Ford put the squirrel in upside down. He let go and quickly pulled his hands back as I slammed the door down, making sure it latched shut.

"What was that thing?" I asked, looking down into the cage as the squirrel/bird tried to fly in the small space.

"Later, let's get you cleaned up," Ford said.

I looked down at my arms and instantly regretted it as they both started to burn. One long scratch ran from my elbow down to my wrist though only one or two were bleeding.

"You all go ahead and eat, I'll take care of him," Ford said as he grabbed the handle to the cage and topped it over so it stood upright. He looked at me and ordered, "Go to the bathroom and start running cold water over those."

I nodded my head and left to do as he said. The cold water stung a bit but it would go ahead and help slow the few cuts that were bleeding. My mind went back to the squirrel/bird as I tried to ignore the stinging. I knew Ford had come across a few cross breads, like the hawktopus and the cowl, maybe this was just another one.

"How's it feeling?"

I looked back towards the door to see Ford walking in with a first aid box in his hands.

"Better, though this one by my wrist still hurts," I admitted, pointing to a small but deep cut on my left wrist as I kept it underwater to numb it.

Ford sat the box on the closed toilet and opened it up. He pulled out a glass bottle and a cotton ball and quickly soaked the cotton in the clear liquid. He sat the bottle down on the counter next to the sink and reached over me to turn the water off. "Which are do you wanna start with?"

I gave him my left arm, already knowing this was going to hurt worse than getting the cuts in the first place did. I felt him starting with the cut that I had pointed out to him and bit my bottom lip as it burned. He was _not_ going to see me wimp out. _Not_ gonna happen. My right hand gripped the side of the counter as another strong spasm of pain hit me.

"That was stupid, you know," Ford state, keeping his eyes to his work.

"Huh?" Crud, my voice cracked.

"We'll have to keep these clean to prevent infection. Do you think it bit you?"

"No, just got me good with its claws," I admitted, wincing as he moved to another cut.

"Talons," Ford corrected. "Next time, put something over its head or use some type of bag. Something replaceable, you know?" He threw away the crimson cotton ball before picking up another out of his kit. He repeated the motion of putting alcohol on it and cleaned my arm in silence. I knew he cared about me, we were family. But I had scared him. The muscle above his left eye was bulging, a little weird but his tell that he was concerned.

I stood in silence as he finished my left arm. I turned for him to do the same with my right as neither of us offered a word. Gilt for making him worry started to overpower the stinging of him cleaning my scratches. "Sorry."

Ford kept his eyes on my arms as he said, "No need. Though it did bring to mind that I need to teach you and your sister how to handle creatures."

"And maybe weapons?" I asked hopefully. I remembered last summer when Stan found that Mabel had shot the arrow out the door.

"Might be for the best," Ford nodded his head. He finished my right arm quickly and threw away the pile of used cotton balls. He pulled out a roll of gauze and a pair of scissors and started to wrap my arms the length of the longest cut. By the time he was done, my right arm was bandaged from elbow to thumb and my left had two sections of gauze, one over the cut in my wrist and one closer to my elbow. "Go ahead and get yourself some dinner."

"If Mabel left me any," I added with a smile.

Ford gave me a smile as he was putting the gauze back in the box. "I'll be there in a bit, don't wait up."

I poked at the tape holding the gauze at my right wrist, sticking it down so it wouldn't catch on anything as I left the bathroom. I walked into the kitchen to see they had already started eating, Abuelita the only one still with food on their plate.

"Dipper still thinks Mrs. Crag is a vampire," Mabel was saying as I sat down next to her.

"Dude! You ok? I'm sorry, man," Soos said from his seat across the table from me.

I loaded my plate with half of what was left of the chicken pot pie, leaving the rest of Ford. "Soos, it's ok," I tried. "It's not as bad as it looks." I sat down my plate and started eating, hoping everyone would stop looking at me.

"Maybe you'll turn into a squirrel!" Mabel joked.

"Yeah, I'll grow a bushy tail and eat acorns," I rolled my eyes as I shoved a forkful into my mouth. Wanting to change the subject away from me, I turned to look at Stan and asked, "So did you find that treasure you were looking for, Grunkle Stan? I'm surprised you didn't bring anyone home."

"Well there was this werewolf, man was she hot," Grunkle Stan said with a smile as Mable whined his name. "Though the next day, I couldn't find her."

I looked at Stan, wondering where this would lead. The kitchen was silent as I ate.

"You know, _where_ was she?"

"That's terrible," Mabel let out a laugh as Soos gave him a real laugh.

Stan and his puns, I should've known that's where he was going. What's sad, I know he gets them out of a book. There's millions of grandparents all using the same bad jokes, getting millions of kids- ha! No! Teens like me rolling their eyes. It'd been a year almost since we turned thirteen and I'm still not used to it. Maybe at fourteen I'll be more used to being a teen.

"Who ready for dessert?" Abuelita asked, standing up.

I quickly finished what was on my plate as it occurred to me that Ford still hadn't come to eat. "I'll take what's left to Great Uncle Ford," I said, grabbing hold of the mostly empty pie tin. I stood up, grabbing his untouched fork and napkin before heading to the basement, knowing whenever he had a creature he preferred to be as far down underground as possible. I pressed in the combination on the snack machine and went down the stairs for the second time today. I punched in the second code to awaken the elevator and rode down two floors. Who could say they had an elevator in a shack in the woods? The door opened for me, letting me into the lab that had once held a portal to another dimension. The Nightmare Realm, the place Bill had called home after Sue destroyed his.

I walked past dismantled control panels and devices repurposed into having new functions. Ford always had new ideas and new projects just waiting around to be finished. I stopped at what had been the main control table for the portal and sat down the plate and fork. I looked through the window to see the squirrel/ bird was flying around the space mostly used for parts Ford hoped to use in another project. Ford stood, eyes up as he watched the squirrel/ bird fly in the large room, with a notepad and pen in hand. I remembered the end of last summer, between helping Stan regain his memories and us having our birthday party, we had tried to get him to learn how to use a computer. He was learning, I noticed he had one of McGucket's laptops sitting next to a year old picture of Mabel and Me, but he still preferred handwriting everything down.

I didn't wanna knock on the glass, in case I startled the squirrel/bird, so any chance Ford looked in my direction I waved. It took three times, but the man finally noticed me and waved back. I lifted up the pie, just now realizing I should have gotten him a drink. Ford nodded his head in acknowledgment. He closed his notebook and turned to leave the room. Carefully he slipped out, the squirrel/bird resting on a corner of what had once been the triangle shaped portal.

"Thanks, I got a bit distracted," Ford admitted, taking the pie plate and fork to start eating standing up.

"What is it?" I asked, looking at the creature who had dropped to the floor, looking for something to eat, I guess.

"First time I'd seen one of these," Ford admitted, through a mouthful of chicken pot pie. He swallowed to add, "Though I've thought to call it a squall."

Just as he said that the squirrel/bird let out a sound similar to what I would call a squall. I turned to look at it as it looked up at us, its paws close to its chest as it spread its wings to balance on its back feet.

"Good name," I nodded my head. I looked back at him and asked, "But how do these combos keep being made? I thought normal science prevented it."

"Our Earth's science does, yes," Ford nodded his head. "But remember what I showed you last summer? Weirdness is attracted to this town like a magnet, no matter the dimension. That fourth journal's proof of that. This squall could've found its way here from another dimension where this is normal or it could be a chemical waste result like the cowl was." He quickly downed a bite before adding, "There's a few tests I can run to determine why it's like this."

"Well Abuelita just pulled out dessert, you think the squall would be fine?" I asked.

"Any idea what it is?"

I shook my head. "I think I saw her baking a cake when we'd got here," I offered, not sure.

Ford took a bite, throwing a look at the squall looking around. "He should be fine long enough for dessert," he mumbled to himself, taking the last bite of the pie he'd wolfed down. He smiled down at me and said, "Sure."

19-20-1-14'19 3-18-5-1-20-9-15-14-19 13-9-7-8-20 14-15-20 2-5 1-19 6-1-18-6-5-20-3-8-5-4 1-19 25-15-21 20-8-15-21-7-8-20

AN: Shameless Plug Time! If you like my stuff, be it Gravity Falls, Danny Phantom, or Disney then check out my published book Harley Davis: Teenage Superhero! It's on Amazon where you can buy either the e-book or the paperback.


	5. Chapter 5 Mason Pines

Chapter 5

Mason Pines

What was this code?

I sat in bed, pen clicking away as my mind ran away with triangles and broken circles. I had figured out Bill's code but the code that looked similar to his wasn't close enough for me to figure it out. Through-out the journal the code wrote notes like Bill had done to Ford. If they carried similar warnings or jokes then they needed to be deciphered. I'd found all twenty-six, assuming whoever had made the code used the English alphabet. I wrote them all down on my note paper, giving tallies for when they were used, which ones were on their own, how many times they were used. A circle with a dot in it was either an A or an I. The symbol that kinda looked like a blow horn could be could be an E or an S, but then again the diamond was used a lot as well and so was the box with the line over it.

"Dipper!" Mabel whined from under her blanket.

I glanced over at her, freezing in my pen clicking. The flame of the lantern flickered, giving the room an orange glow.

"Go to bed," Mabel said, peeking her head out to look at the clock she had on the night stand. "It's past one in the morning."

"But I might have figured-"

"Go to sleep, you'll think better once you sleep," Mabel interrupted, rolling over to face the wall.

I let out a sigh. She was right, I did need sleep. But I was sure if I just went over these symbols again… Maybe not. The one that looked like a cartoon bomb just exploded. Ok, I needed sleep. I closed the journal, put my pen, the note book, and the journal on the table next to my bed, and blew out the light. I laid down in my bed and pulled up the blanket, closing my eyes.

My mind traveled to the world the journal came from. From what I could piece together, our parents had moved up here with us, hoping Ford could help them teach us. Sue had made sure school wasn't something useful. It was weird to think back in '04 we would've been here. But I hadn't found out anything about Stan. In my great uncle's journals, when he had referred to Grunkle Stan he had just called him S, same with McGucket being just F. McGucket was still mentioned, but either this Ford didn't have a twin or the two never got back together after their high school problem. It was weird to think that Grunkle Stan might not exist. The man could be annoying at times but he cared about his family.

I turned over in my bed, realizing my mind needed to shut up or I'd never get to sleep! I opened my eyes to the wall and glanced up at the painting hanging over my bed. In the moon light I couldn't make out the ship, but I knew it was there. Forever crashing through a wave as it carried on its adventure.

I wonder if it was possible to take a boat through the multiverse?

I laughed to myself at the thought. It sounded ridicules. I really did need sleep. I closed my eyes only to quickly open them at the sound of someone banging on the door. With a grown I sat up. I felt like I could've gone to sleep that time only to hear three more bangs at the front door. I got to my feet, standing on the bed, and pushed open the triangle window to poke my head out. Balancing a foot on the table next to my bed, I looked around the lawn, surprised to see the sun starting to color the sky pink. I squinted through blurry eyes, looking down to be even more surprised. Wendy stood there with a kid, raising her arm to bang on the door once more.

"Hey!" I hissed, glancing over at Mabel to see she was still asleep. Worried to not wake her up, I grabbed the pen I had been using last night and threw it down to get Wendy's attention.

The kid grabbed the pen as it fell to the ground, getting the two to look up at me. I held out my hand, pointer finger up to hopefully tell them to wait a moment.

I jumped off my bed and rushed out of the room. Running as silently as I could to prevent waking up anyone else, I got to the living room just to find Ford coming out of his room with his gun pulled and pointed towards the ground.

"It's just Wendy," I said, surprised not for the first time that Ford seemed to sleep in his turtle neck sweater. I rushed passed him and pulled open the door only to freeze at the sight of the kid standing next to Wendy. He wore a white tank top and jeans, a book bag hanged off his shoulders, and a heart necklace rested on his chest, throwing off his rough look. There was a burn on his right arm and fresh stitches on his left cheek. His hair was buzzed close, proudly showing off the constellation birthmark on his forehead.

"Dipper! Don't touch him!" Ford's voice boomed in contrast to the sounds of early morning. He wrapped his arm around my chest and pulled me back. He forced me behind him as he said, "If you two touch, we could lose this whole dimension."

"Stanford," the kid whined, rolling his eyes. "I've been jumping dimensions for a couple of years, you really think I wouldn't find a way to prevent that?" He quickly lashed out his hand, grabbing my bandaged arm at the wrist. I let out a squeak of pain as he proved. "See, still here."

Ford stared at the two of us, all he could say was "Fascinating," as the kid let go of my wrist. I rubbed it through the bandage as I glared at this other me. Ford shook his head before saying, "Let's all step outside before we wake anyone else up."

I followed him onto the porch and closed the door behind me as he asked, "How did you get here? Do you know the dimension title you're from?"

"Seven star eighty-one," the other me informed as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I _had_ a portable portal," he glared over at Wendy who rolled her eyes at him.

"I was doing my chores for the morning, ended up hacking his portal box when he appeared over the winter's firewood I was chopping," Wendy admitted. "I almost hacked _him_ in half."

"And now I'm stuck here, thanks to you," the other me growled. I opened my mouth to defend Wendy but froze when he turned to look at me. "Make this dimension useful, you didn't happen to find a journal in the past six years, have you? It's soft leather with a purple rock on the cover."

"Yeah, we found it yesterday," I admitted.

"Good, it's got the schematics for the original portal, with that we should be able to recreate at least a portal back home," he said, a smile pulling at his face. It was weird to be looking at another me. I mean, I sorta got used to it back last summer with the copy clones but this was a different me. And if he was the me from the journal then this was the me without Mabel. The other me turned to look at Ford and asked, "You do know the basics of quantum physics, right?"

"Of course," Ford nodded his head, sliding his gun into the back of the elastic of his sweatpants.

"Have to ask," the kid offered, dropping his arms. "I've already found a Stanford who was a bundling idiot."

"Dipper, go ahead and get the journal for him," Ford ordered. "And wake your sister."

I nodded my head and turned to go back into the house just as Stan, standing in his undershirt, boxers, and slippers, opened the door. "What's all this racket so early in the morning? It's not even six yet."

I rushed passed him and hurried up the stairs. I pulled open the door, getting a startled meow out of Mabel's cat, Pikme. I walked over to the table and grabbed the journal as I said, "Mabel, get up. Stuff's happening and you're missing it."

"Huh? What stuff?" Mabel asked, her voice muffled with sleep.

I stepped onto the bed and closed the window I had left opened. "Come on," I ordered, not sure how to explain it to her. Another me had showed up at our doorstep? That sounded just crazy.

Mabel had sat up, throwing the blanket down to the foot of her bed as she rubbed her eye.

"You're gonna miss it," I said, wanting to hurry back down stairs. I jumped off my bed and started walking back to the door, knowing she'd be following in a minute. Sure enough, as soon as I got to the stairs, her footsteps were right behind me.

"So what's going on?" Mabel asked, keeping step with me down the stairs.

"You remember how I thought this journal came from another dimension?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Well… someone's come to get the journal back," I said, leading her towards the living room.

"Oooo, someone from another dimension?" she asked as we turned the corner to find Stan sitting in the chair, Ford, Wendy, and the other me standing around the room.

"Mabel?" the other me asked, the first to notice us in the awkward silence that had consumed the four in my absence.

"Aw! It's another Dipper!" Mabel squealed. She rushed over, giving the other me a hug.

The kid took a moment, with his face looking surprised, before giving her a hug back.

"This might get a bit confusing," Ford thought aloud.

Mabel let go of my double as he said, "Well call me Mason. I dropped the nickname…" he threw a look at Mabel, "years ago."

I understood. Mabel was where the name came from. We had been five or so, watching a cartoon that was talking about constellations when she noticed my birthmark looked like the dippers. He must have dropped it when she died. "Oh, here." I realized I still had the journal in my hand. I held it towards him and he took it.

Mason flicked open the clasp and flipped through the journal as if looking for something. He stopped on a page and pulled out a small flashlight from his pocket. He clicked it on to show it was a black light, illuminating the UV ink. "Good, it's the right one," he mumbled to himself.

"So how'd the journal end up here?" Wendy asked.

"Sue chucked it into a portal," Mason explained, clicking off the blank light and shoving the flash light in his pocket.

"Sue?" Stan asked.

"The person who destroyed Bill's world," Ford explained simply. "Here she died in that destruction."

"Not back home," Mason offered. He closed the journal and looked down at the cover as he held it in both hand. "She knew my Stanford had figured out a way to kill her. She led the massacre on Gravity Falls and found the book once Fiddleford was left to hide it. She threw it into a portal, saying good hunting." He looked up to look at us as he continued, "Fiddleford worked for three years to create a portable portal while we tried to keep the resistance but not many people willing to fight were left. Most have just given up."

"So when Fiddleford made the portable portal, he sent _you_?" Ford asked, stressing the last word.

"Who else could he send?" Mason shrugged. "I need to get back, now I have a way to defeat Sue."

"We'll do what we can to help," Ford offered.

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AN: In this story, Bill wasn't the one that destroyed his dimension. I took what the Axolotl said, that Bill blamed the arson, and created an arson.

AN: Shameless Plug Time! If you like my stuff, be it Gravity Falls, Danny Phantom, or Disney then check out my published book Harley Davis: Teenage Superhero! It's on Amazon where you can buy either the e-book or the paperback.


	6. Chapter 6 Forty-Six Apostrophe Backslash

Chapter 6

46'\

"So you _are_ Dipper," Soos said, pointing his fork to my other self as Mable finished telling him and his grandma what had happened before they got up this morning. The four of us sat around the kitchen table, eating breakfast, as Stan and Ford were talking in the living room. Wendy had headed home, wanting to finish getting ready for the day before coming into work. She had already told Stan she was going to be late.

"He's not my clone, Soos," I retorted through a mouthful of pancake. I swallowed and tried, "He's me, from another dimension."

Mason let out a laugh as Soos's eyebrows increased in thought. "Man, I've missed this."

"Don't you have a Soos?" Mabel asked.

"Yeah, I didn't see his name," I added.

"07 was kinda the last time anyone could be… carefree," Mason explained, poking his already cut piece of pancake with his fork.

"Well blarg!" Mabel said, elbowing Mason. "You're here right now. Act like a kid again."

"Bill's dead and we don't have Sue," I said, hoping that would help.

Mason gave us a smile. "Sure, why not." He shoved the piece of pancake in his mouth as if it was the start of his new life.

"What other types of dimensions have you seen?" I asked, questions popping in my head now that I felt it safe enough to ask them. Ford had told me a bit about a few he had seen and I still thought it would be cool to do a little dimension hopping myself.

"Oh man, where to start," Mason almost beamed, reminding me of when I'd get excited over something. He reached down to the bag sitting at his feet and pulled out a journal held together similar to the one we had found, though this one had a clear stone in the shape of a star. He handed it to me and said, "Before I left, Fiddleford gave me this to write down about all the dimensions I'd see. It was the last one Wendy and her mom made…" His voice fell away, looking at the journal I still hadn't opened in my hands. He shook his head and continued, "Anyway, I'll need to add you to it now."

I opened the journal, still surprised to see my handwriting in something I didn't write. Most of them were titled with numbers and symbols, like our own page would be, while a few held titles like "Baby World" and "Sweater Town". I stopped on Sweater Town long enough to read _The Mason Pines of this reality died protecting Mabel. Not the first time I'd seen a dimension where that had happened, but I learned Mabel had gone into a depression-like state because of it._

"So is there a unicorn dimension?" Mabel was asking as I flipped away from that page. We were twins, it made thinking about even being away from her just wrong. Much less one of us dying.

"Yeah," Mason nodded, finishing his breakfast.

"And a kitty dimension?"

Mason nodded again.

"Oooo! How 'bout a uni-kity dimension?!"

Mason let out a laugh. "Seen it. Too much rainbows and glitter."

"Never can be such a thing!"

"Is there a pizza dimension?" Soos asked as Abuelita got up. She grabbed all the empty plates off the table and turned to wash them in the sink.

Mason nodded.

I closed the journal and handed it back to him, hoping there would be time to read it in detail before he had to leave. "Is there a dimension where everything's really detailed?"

Mason squinted as he took a moment to think. "Yeah, there is. That was a weird one."

I had a shiver run through my spine. If that weird reality existed, so did the others from those bubbles.

"So what about a dimension where everyone's dinosaurs?" Soos asked, getting a nod from Mason. "How 'bout video games?"

Mason tilted his head before giving him a shrug. "I'm sure there is, there's millions of realities out there, more than anyone could think existed. I haven't seen it yet though."

"Soos! Why isn't the shack opened yet!?" Stan's voice called before he appeared in the doorway, dressed as Mr. Mystery. He was messing with his eyepatch, trying to figure out which eye to have it on today.

"Dude! Sorry Mr. Pines!" Soos exclaimed, jumping out of his seat. He rushed out of the kitchen, almost knocking down Stan on the way.

"Did Stanley give over the Mystery Shack to Soos here?" Mason asked, pulling my pen from his pocket as he opened his journal to the next empty page.

"It's Stan here, kid," the man ordered as he grabbed his mug out of the cabinet and poured himself a cup of coffee from the machine. "Only my brother gets away with calling me by my full name."

"Yeah, he did," I nodded my head. "The end of last summer, Great Uncle Ford and Grunkle Stan decided to go looking around the world for the weird and unusual." I watched as Stan left the room with his coffee.

"Grunkle?" Mason asked.

"You know, great uncle, mushed together. Grunkle," Mable explained.

"But only Stan's got that?" Mason asked.

I shrugged. "Ford always got the longer title. Don't really know why."

"He didn't seem like a Grunkle," Mabel tried.

"Well, I guess I can't say always, we just found out about him last summer," I tried to explain.

"Oh so this is one of the ones where St-Ford went away for a while?" Mason asked.

"You could say that." I took a moment to figure out where to start and thought I'd start as far back as I could. "Stan and Ford had a big fight back in high school that ended with Stan kicked out of the house and Ford not able to go to the college of his dreams," I started. I told him the best I could, with Mabel adding her voice a few times, of Ford coming to Gravity Falls, getting pushed into the portal, and coming back thirty years later.

Once I'd finished, giving Mason a moment to write down the basics, he reached for his pocket and mumbled, "Right…" He glanced back at us and asked, "Do you think Ford would know what this dimension's labeled as?"

"Oh, it's fourty-six apostrophe backslash," I said. I wondered who named all of them or even if there was a dimension one.

"Thanks," Mason scribbled the label at the top, giving a name to our dimension's page.

"Kids!" Ford's voice called out. He popped his head into the kitchen and said, "We're going to CSO. Get packed."

"CSO?" Mason asked as I jumped to my feet.

"Crash Site Omega, it's an alien ship that crashed back millions of years ago," I explained. I took a deep breath, remembering the last time I'd been to the alien craft. Hopefully those breathing exercises Ford taught me would help.

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AN: Shameless Plug Time! If you like my stuff, be it Gravity Falls, Danny Phantom, or Disney then check out my published book Harley Davis: Teenage Superhero! It's on Amazon where you can buy either the e-book or the paperback.


	7. Chapter 7 Shippy McShipship

Chapter 7

Shippy McShipship

It was weird to be traveling with a version of myself. He had his worn backpack on and was traveling close to Mabel, who had her pack filled probably mostly with stickers and glitter. I hadn't paid too much attention when I was packing a portion of my disposable cameras, some empty zip lock bags, duck tap, the journal Mabel had made for me last year, and some other stuff. I still hadn't showed Ford what I had been working on all year, but maybe once we were done with Mason I could. It's weird to use my own name, much less the name I didn't feel fit me.

"So why is it called Crash Site Omega?" Mason asked, his eyes traveling around us as we walked through the woods. He turned to look up at Ford and asked, "Have you found that many?"

"Thankfully no," Ford let out a laugh. "The first character I saw written on the wall inside looked similar to the Greek letter omega."

"Blarg, I would've given it a better name," Mabel criticized. "Like Shippy McShipship."

Mason and I let out a snort, expecting that type of name from her.

"You had that fad here too?" Mason asked. I gave him a nod in response.

We walked in silence for a bit, the only sound I noticed being a woodpecker looking for lunch. I grabbed the strap of my book bag and glanced back at Mason. "Hey Mason," I said to get his attention. He looked at me as we continued to walk. "Did you figure out the code written in the journal?"

"Which one?"

I gave him a shrug as I explained, "The one made out of symbols. I had a thought it could be Sue's code, like what Bill did to his journals."

"You decoded Bill's code?" Ford asked, his eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Yeah, I was a little late on figuring out some of them though," I admitted. "It was fun." My eyes instantly went to the trees, the code that had creeped me out the most. They eyes were still in the trees. Now that I knew what to look for, they were there.

Mason shook his head. "I can tell you what the popular letters are, you know, E, but that's all I had figured out before she took it."

"I might've figured out A or I," I offered.

"Well you boys can work on that once we get back," Ford said, leading us into a clearing with a sole hill. "Who knows what she might've written."

"Is there a dimension where you're not a total nerd?" Mabel asked, clearly bored with our talk about codes.

"Yeah, of course," Mason said, surprise on his face. A smile took over as he added, "I've even been to one where _you're_ the nerd."

I let out a laugh, trying to imagine a reality like that.

Ford stopped us at the top of the hill and pushed away the rock. "Like I said, if you can imagine it, it exists somewhere," Ford said, lowering himself down into the hole he had uncovered.

"There's even a realm where we're the bad guys and Bill's trying to save the dimension. That one was weird," Mason shivered at the thought.

"I'd rather see a party dimension," Mabel said as she followed Ford down.

"Well there is a whole dimension dedicated to a night club called the Bounce Lounge. Only down side, if you fall off the floor you fall to your death," Mason said as we watched her go down the hole.

Once she was far enough down I motioned for him to go ahead only to find ourselves mirroring each other. "Uh, I'll go ahead," I offered, crawling down into the hole.

The climb down was as long as I remembered it, wondering how Ford even managed to find this thing his first time or how he got a rope ladder long enough.

"I wonder if the aliens had any pets," Mabel thought aloud from below me.

"If they did, they'd be dead," Ford reminded.

"That shape shifter was still alive," Mabel pointed out.

"I'm still not sure where that thing came from," Ford said almost too silent for me to hear.

"It was frozen," I pointed out. "Oh, Great Uncle Ford, if you go back to the cryo-chamber, he froze looking like me."

"Yeah, I know. McGucket almost went down to California after you went home to capture you," Ford admitted. "Had to defrost him just to prove he wasn't you."

"So he is frozen again, right?" Mabel asked.

I glanced down to see her looking down at Ford for his answer.

"Yeah," Ford said, sounding surprised.

"Ah!" I let out a startled scream as Mason's booted foot almost hit me in the head. "Hey!"

"Huh?" Mason and I stopped as he turned his head to look down at me. "Oh, sorry. I was… uh, thinking too hard, I guess."

I wanted to tell him we were too much alike and I knew he was hiding something but let it go and continued going down.

"We're almost at the bottom," Ford called up.

I glanced down to see the two a few yards below me and beyond them the blue glow and slight sun light coming from the mostly defunct air vent control panel and cracks in the ship itself. "What are we down here looking for?" I asked.

"Pretty much a refill on gas," Ford said. "I've called it Corrupt Technetium. It's similar to our technetium but the aliens found a way to make it stable and nontoxic." His voice started to sound closer, getting me to look down and find the floor only a few more steps away. "I've still got enough chemical waste from Stanley's stupidity but he managed to make my lifetime supply of technetium run out. I'm surprised he didn't blow up the Mystery Shack."

I dropped to the ground with Mason a step behind me before the four of us crawled out of the hatch probably used for maintenance back when the aliens were alive.

"So where would it be?" Mason asked, repositioning his back pack as we followed Ford down a corridor.

"Well the first time, I took what they had been using in their engine. Hopefully they had some more stored away," Ford admitted.

I took my eyes from looking around to watching Mabel and Mason look around. Mabel quickly rushed ahead, a smile on her face as she ran straight to an old control panel.

"Mabel!" Mason called out, panic in his voice as he rushed forward to grab her hand and stop her.

"No, it's fine," Ford said, walking past the two as I stopped. "Press them. Those buttons haven't worked for centuries."

Mason let go of Mabel, mumbling, "Sorry."

"Bro-bro, it's ok," Mabel said, giving him a swift punch to the shoulder. She left his side, promptly to go push the button that had caught her attention.

I went ahead and started to follow Ford, kind of worried about getting lost in the big space ship.

"Hey, uh… Dipper?"

I turned around to see Mason rushing up to me as Mabel made her way along the wall "boop"ing stickers on certain buttons. Mason motioned for us to continue walking but I threw a look at Mabel. An odd thing with talking to yourself, half of your words don't need to be said.

"Oh you don't have that twin telepathy thing?" Mason asked.

"We got twin allergies," I rolled my eyes.

"Harsh," Mason let out a laugh as he started to walk down the hall Ford had disappeared down. "I seem to be able to connect to any version of Mabel. She'll be fine. Worse case, we'll follow her sticker trail."

"True," I shared a smile with him.

Mason's smile fell as he turned his head to look back at the walls of technology years beyond Earth's. "Is… uhm, is Wendy happy here?"

"Yeah, I guess," I shrugged my shoulders. "Being the only girl in a house of men can't be easy, I'm sure, but she's the coolest person I know."

"Only girl? What happened to her mom?" Mason asked, surprised.

"I don't know, some accident back a few years ago," I offered. "I never knew her."

Mason let out a sigh as he looked down at his feet. "No matter where I am, she loses someone or dies herself."

"Kids! I found it!" Ford's voice said from behind us.

We stopped and turned around to see Ford sticking his head out of a hallway we had passed.

"Dipper! You got those gloves?" Ford asked.

"Yeah," I slipped off a strap of my back pack and rummaged through it for the gloves Ford had gotten me as the two of us went back to the hall. "You wanna go ahead and hunt down Mabel? We'll probably be going back soon."

"Sure," Mason said as we separated ways.

I pulled out the gloves and put them on before throwing my bag back on my back.

"There shouldn't be any radioactive contamination, but I'd rather not risk it," Ford admitted as I followed him into some type of storage room filled mostly with grey/blue plastic totes. A few had things written on the side I could see but I couldn't make out what they were supposed to say. Ford had pulled out one and had it on the floor, opened. As I got closer I could see tubes of what looked like glass holding a gray liquid. "I wish we could just take the whole thing with us but getting up the ladder with this thing would be a nightmare," Ford said, pulling out one of the tubes with his gloved hands. "Get my pack. We'll take as many as we can."

I grabbed his bag off the floor and unzipped it, surprised only to find two magnetic guns and an extra set of cloths.

"Take the two guns out and wrap this one in my sweater," Ford ordered, fully pulling out the tube of technetium.

I pulled out the two guns, careful to make sure they were turned off before throwing them in my pack, and did as he asked.

"Where's Mabel and Mason?" Ford asked as he worked on pulling out another tube of the element.

"Mabel was putting down stickers, Mason went to get her," I offered, laying the tube in his bag carefully.

"Did you read anything in his journal to indicate which side he was on?"

I paused for a moment, a part of me taken back by his words until I realized that was a possibility when dealing with multiple universes. "There wasn't too much written on them. I know his Ford was teaching the two cause school wasn't a thing anymore," I said, going over what I could remember as I made sure the tube was secure in the bottom of his bag. He handed me another tube which I wrapped in his extra pair of pants. "The journal entries stopped in 2007, just after the massacre."

"Just shy of twenty years in one journal?" Ford asked.

I looked up at him to see he was still pulling out a third tube while his mind worked. "There is a big gap from '91 to '96. I never saw what caused the gap thou-"

"Stanford was in jail."

I turned, twisting to find Mason and Mabel walking into the room.

"He was arrested to prove that Sue wouldn't tolerate free thinkers. Mr. Corduroy led his prison break."

I untwisted so I could finish securing the two tubes as they came over to us.

"Is that the stuff?" Mabel asked, watching as Ford fully pulled out the third tube.

"Yeah, keep back though. Don't need you growing another head," Ford turned to look at Mabel's braces filled smile and added, "Not as cool as it sounds, believe me."

I took the third tube, surprised to see Ford was closing the tote and leaving fire more tubes. I got the last secured in the bag as Mabel started walking around the room.

"Oooo, what's I this one?" Mabel asked, pulling out a plastic tote from the bottom rack that held all of them secure to the wall.

"Be careful," Ford warned.

"Don't worry Great Uncle Ford," Mabel said with a smile as she unlocked the lid and lifted it up. "I won't blow everything up again."

"Again?" Mason asked as she started rummaging through the crate.

"Glitter bomb last year didn't go quite as she planned," I said as I zipped up the pack and stood up.

"Soos said the vacuum cleaner still spits out more," Ford added. "Come on Mabel, we're done here."

"But look!" Mabel said as she stood straight with a nine legged creature in her hands. "They must've had kids on this ship, this is filled with toys."

"Kids?" Ford echoed as the three of us went over to see the box.

Mabel held the stuffed animal in one arm as she dug into the box, pulling out colorful plastic-like toys to look at. I saw a disk-like pink toy and pulled it out, thinking it was a Frisbee only to find buttons on the curved edges. Sadly the batteries must have been dead, the buttons not doing anything more than just to be pushed.

"Oh wow, I had one of these," Mason said, reaching in to pull out six plastic rectangles held together by three ribbons.

"What is it?" I asked, never have seen one myself.

"It's a Jacob's Ladder," Mason explained. He held it by the top most rectangle and flipped it, giving the illusion one rectangle was traveling down to the bottom. "Sure, it's not much, and mine was home made by Marcus so it was wooden, but when toys are hard to get and you're a kid, it works." He kept flicking it, the pieces clacking together as they traveled downwards.

"Weird," I said, mesmerized by how it looked while traveling down. Mason looked at me, getting me to quickly add, "Cool, but still weird."

Mason shrugged, pocketing the toy.

I looked back at the box to see Ford had knelt down next to it and was helping Mabel go through the toys.

"I guess you could," Ford answered Mabel's unheard question.

Mabel hugged the stuffed creature tighter as she squealed, "Yay!"

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AN: Shameless Plug Time! If you like my stuff, be it Gravity Falls, Danny Phantom, or Disney then check out my published book Harley Davis: Teenage Superhero! It's on Amazon where you can buy either the e-book or the paperback.


	8. Chapter 8 Wendy Corduroy

Chapter 8

Wendy Corduroy

The blue prints for the portal was something I had skipped over when I had the journal the first time. These were all drawn in by Fiddleford, unlike here where Ford had drawn it all in the journals. It almost looked like this had been all they had to write on, with both handwritings around pieces and parts. Most of what they had written was gibberish to me, most of it being quantum physics and math problems beyond my knowledge. I looked up from where I sat at the old portal's control panel and, in the reflection of the glass, saw Mason crouched down at one of Ford's experiments.

"Any idea what this one does?" Mason asked, poking a light that wasn't going to give him any power.

I turned around, making sure of which one he was pointing to, and said, "The panel to his teleporter."

"Where's the rest of it?"

"He's still working on it." I reached to pick the journal up as the squall called out, getting my attention. I looked through the window and saw it had flown up to sit on the window sill. I though Ford needed to let the squall go, but I guess he wasn't done testing the thing.

"You have a squirrel/bird?" Mason asked, walking over to the window, standing next to my chair.

"Ford called it a squall," I rubbed my wrist, it starting to itch under the newest layer of gauze.

"Mabel wanted to keep it, didn't she?" Mason asked, poking a finger against the glass as the squall tried to sniff through, looking for food.

I let out a laugh. "Yeah, she's already gotta cat and a pig. Stan and I both said no."

"Cat still called Pikme?"

I nodded my head as the squall, not finding any food, gave out the namesake call and flapped its wings to fly away. "Named after the sign on the box," I said, only remembering Mom's retelling of the ten year old story.

"What's the pig's name?"

"Waddles."

Mason turned away to look at the other incomplete projects that litter the floor, leaving me to go over the page in the journal.

An equation got my attention, the best I could read it as _i_ _ħ_ ∂/∂ _t_ _Ψ=_ _Ĥ_ _Ψ._ It didn't look like something he had in use, just as a reminder but how could I tell. "I wish this made sense to me," I mumbled.

"Huh, oh that's the Schrödinger equation," Mason said, taking a step closer to me. "It takes the wave function of the system, the operator, energy, time, and space all into consideration."

"It actually makes sense to you?" I asked, looking up at him.

"Yeah, well I did have Ford as a teacher," Mason pointed out.

"What does it do?" I wanted to learn all of this.

Mason opened his mouth to explain only to have Ford's voice answer. "It shows the changes over time of the system that is affected." I looked past Mason to see Ford walking in from the now open elevator. "Without this basic equation, no one would ever be able to go from one dimension to another. Maybe some other time we can go over it in more detail."

I quickly put the book back on the table and jumped out of the seat. "That'd be great," I said. A part of me regretted not taking the apprenticeship, but only for a second.

"McGucket's on his way over, with him we'll be able to get this portal put together and working in under a week, hopefully," Ford said, looking towards the room housing the squall. He threw a look at me and asked, "You think Mabel would be able to take care of it? I'm not done but it can't stay here."

I realized if I said yes, the thing would be sleeping in the attic. I looked through the glass, the squall looking up at me and held out a taloned paw with a growl. It hated me. I wasn't all that fond of it. But Ford wanted to study it some more. I looked back at Ford and sighed, "Yeah, knowing her she'll have it dressed up and spoiled in a day."

Ford smiled as he said, "Go get her. And Waddle's crate." His smiled faded a bit as he turned to Mason. I started to leave the lab as he asked, "Did I hear right that you learned some quantum physics from my counterpart?"

"And the basics of quantum mechanics," Mason said as I got into the elevator. The doors closed and I traveled up, back to the shack.

With the Mystery Shack opened to tourists I was forced to wait behind the snack machine, looking through the small peep hole for a break in customers. When we'd gotten back from the CSO, we had lucked out and were able to go down in the small break of customers that had happened but now the place was packed. Apparently Stan had a sort of fan base and his return had brought a lot of people in. Soos' web page of the Mystery Shack sure was good advertising. But here I stand, hiding behind the snack machine like some sort of creep. A creep with a good view of Wendy who stood at the cash register, actually working. At the moment she was checking out a couple, the dude buying a pine tree hat and making his girl and Wendy laugh. Wendy flicked the bill of my hat and said something that got another laugh.

The door opened, getting my attention away from the three to see another family walking in. We've gotta make the door out of this place not the snack machine. The couple Wendy had checked out now left and the family was heading out towards the museum, giving me a small window. I quickly pushed open the machine and snuck out, glad to see the gift shop empty for a moment. Just as I shut the machine a mom and daughter walked in. The two smiled at me and I smiled back as they headed to the museum.

"You guys need a different way of leaving the basement," Wendy offered.

"I know," I threw back. I was conflicted for a moment. I wanted to stay and talk to Wendy but I knew Ford needed the squall out of the way. I rushed through the door reading Employees Only and ran through the house. Mabel had said she would be working on a new sweater so she'd either be in our room or the living room.

"Aw, that looks so cute!" Mabel's voice came from down the hall. "How was that done again?"

I followed the drone of Abuelita's voice, not able to make out her words until I got to her doorway. Inside was the old woman sitting on her rocking chair, still working on the same thing she had been yesterday, and Mabel sitting on the foot of her bed with a ball of yarn being turned into something new. "Hey Mabel, can you take care of the squall?" I asked as I stuck my head into the room.

Mabel turned to look at me, a big braces filled smile on her face. Already regretting it.

-.-.-.-

I leaned against the counter, waiting once again for a break in customers. Wendy was stuck helping someone get a Stan bobble head down from the top shelf so I kept an eye on the store. A couple were looking at a small plastic version of the sascroch and a kid was going through the post cards.

Mabel had already made her way down stairs and got the squall while I was in the bathroom. She was now in our room with the thing.

"Excuse me, do you work here?" a girl about Wendy's age asked me.

"Uh, yeah," I pushed away from the counter to stand straight. "What can I help you with?"

"I collect these magnets for the different states, do you have Oregon's?"

I took a step away from the counter and pointed to the square magnet stuck the metal turn-around stand just next to us. If customers just looked, they could help themselves out a lot easier. "Is this it?" I asked, struggling to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.

"Perfect," the girl smiled, picking one off the stand. "Oh cool, a Mystery Shack magnet."

"Anything else I can help you?" I asked.

"No thanks."

I took a step back over to the counter just as Wendy walked around me to get to the register.

"This is getting ridicules, there's no time to read my magazines," Wendy said just as a family walked up to check out.

"At least Grunkle Stan'll be happy," I offered as I watched her ring out a shirt, a couple of post cards, and a burping Stan.

"Soos too," Wendy said. She looked at the family and said, "Fifty-seven, oh nine." The woman gave her their card and Wendy swiped it. "Soos' has turned out to have a knack for running a business. He did a special bash during fall break and Christmas and we were packed then too." She handed the customer back their card and started putting their stuff in a bag while waiting for the card reader to catch up. As soon as she finished bagging the card reader spit out the receipt and she tore it off. "Have a good day," she said, handing them the receipt. She turned to me and asked, "So what've I missed? He said his name was Mason?"

"Yeah, our parents wanted us to have older names or something," I offered, still not a fan of my own name.

"So your parents _did_ hate you," Wendy said with a laugh.

"Heh, yeah," I shrugged, leaning against the counter to watch the customers. "They're working on building a portal back to his dimension so he can defeat something worse than Bill."

" _Worse_ than Bill?" Wendy echoed. I glanced up at her and saw her eyes wide and her smile gone.

"Yeah, I know," I said, understanding her fear. I turned back to looking at the customers. "I wouldn't wanna go back. Here, everyone's still alive."

"I'd gotten that Mabel was dead over there," Wendy said, startling me into realizing I'd said that last part out loud. "Who else?"

"Who isn't," I shrugged. "Ford's dead, you, your dad, Nate, Tambry-"

"My mom?"

I froze. She never mentioned her mom. What I had learned about the woman had come from Lazy Susan and she didn't really say much. After a moment I kept my head turned to the customers and turned my eyes to see she was poking idly at a hole in the counter's wood. "She… was on the list too," I said, not sure how to say it. I turned to face her and added, "Sorry."

"No man, you're cool," Wendy said just as the couple she had been helping came over to pay for the bobble head.

I watched her check them out, wondering about what Mason had said about her and all the other versions of her. There had to be a dimension where her and all her family was still alive. She was the coolest person I knew, coolest person anyone in this town knew, she deserved better. She finished with the couple and we watched them walk out of the gift shop in silence, the radio the only sound as the room was empty but instead of taking the chance to go downstairs I felt like staying. I felt like enjoying the silent company of Wendy.

"You would've liked her," Wendy said, breaking the silence as she reached for her back pocket. She pulled out her wallet, one of the only people close to my age who still carried pictures there, and flicked it open. "She was all into the unknown and mysteries of Gravity Falls. When I was little, we went camping. She was always trying to find this platypus that was rumored to be in the woods." She turned the wallet so I could see a picture of a woman, her long red hair pulled up into a pony tail and fell over her shoulder as she leaned over and wrapped her arms around a young Wendy with pigtails and braces. The woman was wearing a cut off tank top and jeans, showing she could rival her husband in strength.

"She's beautiful," I said only to blush as I realized I said that out loud. To quickly cover it up I asked, "Uh, when was this taken?"

"Two thousand seven," Wendy offered, turning the picture back so she could look at it. "This was _the_ trip." She stared at the picture for a moment, her eyes watering.

I stood next to her, unsure of what to do. I didn't really know what to do when Mabel cried, she just normally found me and hugged me. I paused for a moment only to break when a tear escaped her eye and went down her cheek. I didn't care if it wasn't cool, I wrapped my arms around her stomach, really wishing I would have a growth spirt soon.

A moment passed and I was about to let go when she hugged me back with one arm. I looked up to see her other hand was wiping away at her eyes. She looked down at me and gave me a partial smile. "Thanks man." She released the hug and I let go, taking a step back to give her some space. She shoved her wallet back into her back pocket and asked, "You're not gonna say anything…"

"What? And wreck my cool-guy image?" I let out a laugh, hoping she got the joke. I tried to be cool, like she was, but I don't think I'm fooling anybody.

She gave me a laugh before nodding towards the snack machine. "You might wanna get down there before Soos' tour's over and we get packed again."

"Yeah." I smiled at her. The smile dropped a bit as I asked, "You sure you're good?"

"Yeah."

I gave her one last smile, glad to be able to help her, before turning around to go into the snack machine's secret door. I slipped behind the machine just in time to hear the gift shop door open as I closed the door. I glanced through the peephole, making sure they didn't notice me to watch a man with blonde hair turned to look at a Mystery Shack shirt.

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AN: Shameless Plug Time! If you like my stuff, be it Gravity Falls, Danny Phantom, or Disney then check out my published book Harley Davis: Teenage Superhero! It's on Amazon where you can buy either the e-book or the paperback.


	9. Chapter 9 Schrödinger

Chapter 9

Schrödinger

The elevator opened, revealing McGucket sitting at the old control panel with Ford and Mason standing around him. McGucket must have gotten down here while I was in the bathroom.

"-well if we repurpose that Hyper drive-" McGucket cut himself off and looked up at Ford. "You do still have it, right?"

Ford nodded his head. "Just got some corrupt Technetium as well."

"Good, so if we repurpose the old portal, we'll get 'er done in no time," McGucket said, slapping his knee to punctuate his words. I stopped behind my other self and saw McGucket and Ford had drug up the old blue prints to the old portal and had the fourth journal open to their portal's schematics.

"Guess we better get to work, 'ey old friend?" Ford said, placing a hand on McGucket's shoulder.

"Ya'll find out what we can use and what we need while I double check these numbers," McGucket nodded his head. Ford took away his hand as McGucket reached for the calculator and a fresh sheet of paper. McGucket pushed up his new pair of round clear glasses and hunched over to get to work.

"If I know you, two times isn't enough," Ford said with a smile.

I glanced through the window to see the pieces and parts that had been the portal. "While we're at it, anyway the portal part could be closer to the ground?" I asked as Ford opened the door for the three of us to go into the room. "I mean, we'll be sending someone through it."

"I was thinking of building a set of stairs, more cost efficient," Ford admitted, kneeling down just in the room at a pile of wires.

I hadn't thought of cost, remembering half the old portal came from the alien ship and the other half came from grant money.

"What do you need us to do?" Mason asked, looking around the room.

"Well could you go through these odds and ends?" Ford asked, standing up with a wire in his hand. He let go of his end of the wire to let it fall back to the pile. "Dipper, can you go through these? Both of you make a pile of perfect or undamaged and a pile of questionable to unusable?"

"Sure," I said, taking a step to drop down next to Ford as Mason went over to the pile of nobs, sheet metal, and the lever that had been used as the back-up off button. Ford left me to the mound of black cord to start going through larger pieces of metal, pulling out the frame of the old portal. I turned my back to their work and focused on finding what wires we could keep verses what had been melted or burnt to the point of no return.

"Mason, I know it took place before you were born but, what can you tell me about Weirdmageddon?" Ford asked as the piece he pulled out squealed against the asphalt floor as he brought it out to the center of the room.

Mason waited till the sound stopped before I heard his voice. "Really I don't know much. I know it happened in '82, pretty much right after you- uh, my Stanford met him. Stanford didn't tell me much, just that he was forced to make a deal with him that ended with the rift being ripped open. I know Stanley died during all that, but I never found out how. There wasn't but about five deaths from Bill's rule." Mason let out a grunt, getting me to turn my head to see him standing with the lever now freed from the pile. He put it to the side of the pile he was making that, to me, looked usable before he added, "Between '83 and '84, Sue defeated Bill and took over."

"The whole world dealt with it?" Ford asked.

Mason gave a sound of confirmation that I already knew was coming.

"So you didn't start working with portals until after Sue," I said, realizing it as I started winded up a cord around my elbow and palm.

"Yeah, my Stanford was trying to figure out a theory of weirdness, which brought him to Gravity Falls, but never wanted to open a portal to any other dimension," Mason offered. "Fiddleford was who encouraged the idea of going into Sue's realm to take the fight to her."

I tied the cord together and put it in a spot dedicated to good cords as the three of us continued to work in silence. I started to go along the next wire I found, quickly finding it charred on a frayed end. I went ahead and checked the rest of it, thinking we could just cut off the damaged part, when the door beside me opened. I looked up to see McGucket standing in the doorway.

"Stanford," the old hill billy said, sounding more like stin-furd. "I need you to look at this for a second."

Ford pulled out the piece he was checking over with a squeal and dropped it to the floor before saying, "Sure." He rubbed his hands as he started to the door, shutting it behind himself.

Through the door I could hear McGucket's voice sounding panicky but I couldn't make out the words due to the sound proofing Ford had done when building the place.

"Your Fiddleford's weird," Mason said after a moment of straining my ears to hear the two outside.

"He drove himself crazy here," I offered. "Back thirty-odd years he was the first one to go into the portal to Bill's nightmare realm. Bill said all the man saw was him eating but McGucket was so scared he created a memory erasing gun and even created a secret society just for erasing people's minds of the weird. He used the device on himself too many times and ended up becoming the town kook until he got his memories back.

"Let me guess, the Society of the Blind Eye?" Mason asked with a sigh.

"Yeah."

"I can't seem to get away from that cult," Mason grumbled. "In ever Gravity Falls I've been to and even a few where Trembley didn't exist, that cult still shows up. In my dimension it was started by a local farmer. They didn't have any mind erasing device so they called upon ghosts to prevent people from remembering. I don't know too much 'cause they caught me and Mabel. Stanford did what he could to prevent them from doing anything else but a few escaped."

"How can you do it?" I asked before realizing I had said anything.

"Do what?"

I swallowed, no way to back out now. "Keep going? Now work to go back? Defiantly since here you've got everyone again." I kept my eyes turned to my work, not sure I even wanted to know his answer much less look at him.

"I just do," Mason responded. I stopped hearing him moving things and glanced over my shoulder to see him slouched over. "I can't leave my home under Sue's rein. Every month or so I'd go back to check in, Fiddleford's rule, and things got worse and worse every time. I have to help whose left. Anyway this Mabel's not my Mabel. Just like if I brought my Fiddleford here, you could tell the difference even if yours shaved to look alike."

The door opened on his last word as Ford popped his head in. He looked down at me and asked, "Ready for a crash course?" He turned to look at Mason and added, "Something's not adding up so we need your help."

"Sure," Mason said as we got to our feet.

I dusted off my knees and butt, making it so I followed Mason back into the control room where Fiddleford had papers sprawled everywhere to look ready for a match of Dudgeons, Dudgeons, and More Dudgeons. I found the small stool and pulled it close as Mason took the seat to start working on what they couldn't figure out. Ford grabbed a notepad and pen off the top of the portal's panel and held it out towards me. I pulled out the small notepad I kept with me in my right vest inside pocket and pulled my pen out of the spirals to give it a satisfying click.

"Ok, you have to keep in mind in quantum physics, objects have both partials and waves," Ford said as he put back the paper and pen. He turned to look at me as he asked, "You've heard about Schrödinger's cat, right?"

I nodded my head.

"Tell me what you know."

I gulped, clicking my pen as I thought back to what I had looked up at the beginning of the last school year. "It's a thought experiment," I started off, keeping my eyes focused on Ford like I would when asked a question in school.

Look only at the teacher, no one else. "A cat, some poison, and a Geiger counter are put in a box set up to release the poison if the Geiger counter goes off. All out comes, the cat living or dying, happens because of the Copenhagon…" Shoot, the Copenhagon what?

"The Copenhagen interpretation?" Mason asked over his shoulder, trying to help me out.

That sounded right. "Yeah, the Copenhagon interpretation said it had to be all out comes but if you opened the box, the cat would either be dead or alive," I said, glad I remembered all that.

"That's where our ideas of the other outcomes go," Ford explained. "If you open the box and find the Geiger counter's gone off but failed to release the poison, there's another reality where it has worked and killed the cat and also one where the Geiger counter didn't go off at all. And the Copenhagon interpretation?"

Erg, I barely remembered that. "Didn't it have to do with while the cat was being observed, we, as the observer, could only see the dimension we're in?"

Ford nodded his head as McGucket put in, "If we could see in 4D, we'd be able to see the critter dead, alive, or any other outcome."

"Well that's the many-world interpretation," Ford said, turning his head to his friend. He turned back to look at me and added, "That's the direction we take it."

I quickly scribbled down notes on all of this, knowing I wouldn't be tested like in school but Ford could always test me in other ways.

 _S's cat experiment= Many-world interpretation. If could see 4D, see cat in all outcomes_

"Hey, what's this supposed to be?" Mason asked.

I looked up to see both Ford and McGucket turn and lean over to look at what he was pointing to on their work papers. "Two," Ford said as McGucket offered, "Seven." The two men turned to look at each other, surprise on Ford's face and confusion on McGucket's.

"Well there's your problem!" Mason said as he let out a laugh. "All seven would get you is a spectacular explosion."

"I think you need to clean your glasses," Ford said with a smile to McGucket.

McGucket's face softened as he said, "I guess yer right. I could've sworn I saw it as a seven."

"Excuse me, dudes," Soos' voice said, getting us all to turn to see the large man in the elevator's doorway. "Mr. Pines sent me down to get you. Dinner's ready."

65-108-108 105-115 119-97-118-101-115 119-108-116-104 110-111-116-104-105-110-103 119-97-118-105-110-103 111-118-101-114 110-111 100-105-115-116-97-110-99-101 97-116 97-108-108

AN: Whoa… Crash Course in Quantum Physics and Time travel time! I was reading library books at work trying to understand enough and even after all that I feel like I only embraced the concept.

DANNY: NURD!

AN: Danny, this isn't even your story!

MABEL: Come on, ghost boy! It was Mr. Plum or Curnal Muster in the billiards room, I just know it!

DIPPER: Colonel Mustard, Mabel.

AN: Read and review. Guess I better get back to Clue as well. *It wasn't either of those and I think it was in the dinning room…*

AN: Shameless Plug Time! If you like my stuff, be it Gravity Falls, Danny Phantom, or Disney then check out my published book Harley Davis: Teenage Superhero! It's on Amazon where you can buy either the e-book or the paperback.


	10. Chapter 10 Hats

Chapter 10

Hats

"You sure they're not gonna mind me inviting myself?" Mason asked as the three of us sat on the porch. We'd finished dinner only to receive a text from Wendy about all of us going out.

"Well, she did say "you three", so you are invited," Mable said, kneeling down so she could poke at a bug in the weeds.

I sat on the steps with Mason and said, "Anyway, they're cool." Robbie flashed in my mind. "Well, mostly cool." I looked over at Mabel and asked, "Did she say what we're doing?"

"No, something about she wanted to keep it a surprise," Mabel said, standing up with a bug crawling on her finger.

"You did put the squall in Waddle's cage, right?" I asked, the bug reminding me of the creature in our room.

"Yeah, and his name's Squeaker, not squall." The bug flew off of Mabel's hand and straight for my face. I promptly flicked my hand at it, shewing the bug away. "Do you think she'll need glitter and confetti for the surprise?"

"Don't you always carry your emergency bag?" I asked.

She reached into her striped pink and orange hoodie pocket and pulled out a ziplock bag fill of sparkles. "Yeah, but what if I need more?"

Mason let out a laugh, "A Mabel that's prepared? I guess I have made it to the end of the multiverse!"

Mabel put her bag of glitter back in her pocket and instead pulled out her grappling hook. She raised it so it pointed to the sky and declared, "Mabel Pines is always prepared!"

I laughed along with Mason at the pose she pulled, a smile on her face.

Behind her an old familiar van pulled along the gravel driveway, getting our attentions as Mabel put her grappling hook back in her pocket. The headlights in the late twilight night blinded us from seeing inside as the van pulled to a stop and hocked its horn.

"Come on, this is them," I said as I stood up.

Mabel ran ahead and slid open the side door of the van, calling out, "The party is here!" as she jumped in.

Mason followed me to the van as I could see Thompson driving with Robbie and Tambry sitting in the front. The middle seat held Nate, Lee, and Wendy, who was crawling up to the seat from the back as Mabel dove over the middle seat to our row in the back.

"You're triplets now?" Robbie asked only to receive a punch from Tambry.

Tambry closed her phone and said, "Didn't you hear a word Wendy said?"

"No," Robbie said, rubbing his arm.

"Get the wax out of your ear, maybe then you won't flunk a grade," Wendy said, putting her seat belt on as she sat next to Nate on the end.

I went ahead and got into the back row, Mason following me, as Nate and Lee called out, "Oooo! Burn!"

I took my seat next to Mabel and buckled in as I asked, "Anyone you don't know?"

Mason sat down in the seat next to me as Wendy reached out and pulled the door shut. He looked around and opened his mouth only for Thompson to call out, "Seat belts!"

"We're good man!" Nate whined.

"You're not my mom," Robbie grumbled loudly.

I eyed Mason for a moment before realization dawned on his face. "Oh." He quickly pulled on the seat belt as he admitted, "It's been a while."

"Been a while for what, a seat belt?" Lee asked. He turned around in his seat and looked at Mason as Thompson pulled the van forward to leave the shack's parking lot.

"Not every dimension uses them," Mason offered with a shrug.

"I'm sure you've got some horror stories that'll be great for tonight," Wendy said, turning to glance at us.

"I'll take that as a challenge," Mason said, crossing his arms over his chest with a smug smile on his face.

"What _are_ we doing tonight?" I asked.

"My dad's setting off a bond fire in the clearing by my house," Wendy said. Her eyes widened as she turned away from us and said, "Thompson! We need to hit the Piggly Wiggly on the way!"

"The Piggly Wiggly?" Mabel asked, a big smile on her face as she held her hands up to her cheeks.

"Knew she'd like the place," Nate said, high fiving Lee.

"It's a new grocery store that came in the fall," Tambry said.

"They seriously underestimated this town's love of Halloween," Wendy said, turning back to us. "They came like a week before Halloween with only half a rack of candy and a pumpkin here or there."

"The manager was from Portland," Tambry said. "She did _not_ know what she was getting herself into."

"Has someone warned her about Summerween?" I asked.

"Oh, she quit," Robbie called back. I could see him putting his arm around Tambry's shoulders as he added, "Tambry's now the manager."

"Oh, that's great!" Mabel exclaimed. "So does that mean we get free candy?"

"Mabel," I looked at my sister who gave me her "can't hurt" face.

"Maybe closer to Summerween," Tambry offered.

"Oh what!?" Nate exclaimed.

"Yeah, what about us?!" Lee added.

"You boys get your own candy," Tambry said as her phone went off loud enough for me to hear in the back. She'd changed a lot over the school year, last summer she could barely go a full minute without her phone. We were just pulling into the parking lot of the Piggly Wiggly when her phone went off and she pulled it out.

I looked up at the sign over the store, seeing a mascot that looked like Porky Pig. "I would've given them a cuter idea of a mascot," Mabel said, seeing the same I saw. "Waddles would be ten times as cute."

Thompson pulled us into a parking spot before killing the engine as everyone piled out of the one working sliding door in the back. "We need hotdogs, marshmallows, chocolate, gram crackers, and anything else to cook," Wendy said as we got out of the van.

I stepped out after Mason and waited for Mabel as Tambry said, "I work here, I don't wanna be here on my night off." She closed the passenger door and looked down at her glowing phone.

Mabel closed the van door as she said, "Do you think we could roast gummy worms?"

"Tried and failed," Nate said, shaking his head. "All you end up with is a melted mass that falls into the fire."

We headed to the front door as Mabel asked, "How 'bout cookies?"

Nate and Lee looked at each other as they smiled. They turned back to look at her and both said, "Awesome!"

"We're gonna find cookies!" Lee said as the three headed off close to a run down the first aisle they saw.

"Thompson, can you grab the hotdogs?" Wendy asked, already headed down the front of the store.

"Got it," Thompson said, turning off to go down an aisle.

I kept in pace with Wendy as Robbie and Mason turned down an aisle, I missed what the two were saying to each other. "Hey, um, Thompson seems…" I struggled with the word I wanted. He had noticeably changed in the year, he wasn't so wishy-washy.

"Yeah, he finally grew a pair," Wendy offered after I couldn't finish my sentence. "He'll still do a good dare but now it's just because he wants to, not to try and keep us together."

"Well after all the junk we've been through, I guess I can't be surprised," I said, shoving my hands in my pockets. She turned down an aisle and I quickly turned to follow her, eyeing my blue cap still on her head. I liked that she was still wearing it, and I did like wearing hers, but a part of me wanted to swap back. But how do you do that when asking for it back would be weird. It would be like saying, yeah, thanks and all, but I want my hat. In a way, it was like that but I kinda liked that she'd been wearing my hat all year. We stopped and found all the things for s'mores right together. I grabbed a bag of humongous marshmallows and turned to see Wendy looking at me, already holding the box of gram crackers and a pack of chocolate bars. "What?" I asked, worried I had something on my face or something.

"You ok?"

"Uh… just… just thinking," I said, worried if I say anything more, I'd say too much.

"You wanna swap hats?"

My eyes opened wide, how'd she know?

"You've still got that thing of mumbling to yourself," Wendy pointed out.

I quickly put my hand up over my eyes. I've gotta stop doing that. "What did I say?" I asked, my face heating up.

"It sounded like 'yeah, thanks, but I want my hat'." Wendy moved, getting me to drop my hand and seeing she had taken off my hat. She held it towards me by the bill and added, "If it makes you feel better, I do kinda miss my hat too."

I gave her a half smile as I reached up and took off her hat. Before I could take my hat back she plopped it on my head and took her hat out of my hand.

"Looks better on you anyway," Wendy offered as I readjusted my hat. "Last summer I thought the idea was cool but you fit the pine tree better than I do."

"If only I was a couple years older, eh?" I instantly regretted saying that as I pulled my hat down to cover my face as she let out a laugh. That's what I get for daydreaming of her becoming a Pines. "Ugh, forget I said that."

"Hey man, if we get to our twenties and still don't have anybody," Wendy offered, her voice still full of laughter.

I looked up, waiting for the end of her sentence only to see her shrug.

"Eh, by then, three years won't be that far off," Wendy said, looking away from my face. This was the first time I've ever seen her awkward. "Anyway, no one ever stays with their first love."

"There you two are," Thompson said, getting us to turn towards the back of the store as the overweight teen and Robbie came up to us. "Find everything?"

"Yeah, just debating on large or jumbo marshmallows," Wendy said, putting her hat on.

"We went with jumbo," I said, holding up the bag still in my hand.

"Good. Lee and Nate already bought three different types of cookies, but we didn't grab any money," Robbie explained, handing Wendy the pack of hotdogs.

"Free loaders," Wendy mumbled with a smile.

"Hey, this was your idea," Robbie said as we started to walk out of the aisle.

Ahx dbmuwyjtur's wsbgallr tfk a iaue mjle. Ygybbvkeg xyixfks uma a kgjk lgsiw xvugvhtbgu.

AN: Shameless Plug Time! If you like my stuff, be it Gravity Falls, Danny Phantom, or Disney then check out my published book Harley Davis: Teenage Superhero! It's on Amazon where you can buy either the e-book or the paperback.


	11. Chapter 11 Have You Seen This Man?

Chapter 11

Have You Seen This Man?

"Ugh! Another root!" Robbie exclaimed, his phone flash light casting my shadow far ahead of me as the nine of us trekked through the woods. "How much farther?"

"Can you see the bonfire?" Wendy asked, it not the first time Robbie had asked.

I kept close to Mason, who used a pen light he had in his pockets to light our way with Wendy just ahead of us. I glanced over my shoulder to see Mabel holding onto the bags of food, walking close to Nate who had his phone on light a flash light. Lee and Thompson shared the emergency shake light Thompson had in the van, the two having to keep shaking the flash light to keep it working. Tambry and Robbie brought up the rear, Robbie finding yet another root to trip over.

"Robbie's gonna trip himself into the fire at this rate," Mason said low enough only I heard.

I turned to him and gave him a smile, hoping he could see it only to realize I smelt smoke. We were finally getting to the clearing. We rounded a large tree and could see the fire already going and Kevin saying, "But gas will make it a bigger fire."

"It's big enough," Manly Dan said.

We broke through to the clearing to see the pile of wood burning almost as tall as the large man and the fire looked even higher into the night sky. Dan sat on a log pulled to sit about three feet away from the fire and a pile of branches next to him, mostly small tree limbs and other deformed pieces he couldn't sell. The oldest of Wendy's brothers, Marcus, was poking at the fire with a polished stick. He glanced over his shoulder and waved as we walked over.

"We've got s'mores!" Wendy announced.

"And cookies and hotdogs!" Mabel added.

"Cookies?" Kevin asked, taking a step around the fire to show he'd been standing behind it.

"Dude, yeah!" Lee grabbed a seat on the log adjacent to the one Dan sat on as everyone started finding a place on the four logs squaring the fire.

"Gus! Have you finished those sticks yet?" Dan asked.

I sat down on the log across from Dan, hiding the large man from my sight as the eight year old entered the clearing, holding onto a bundle of sticks, all sharpened to a point on one end and cleared of bark.

"Who's Gus?" Mason whispered to me as he sat next to me.

I nodded my head at the kid and whispered back, "Wendy's youngest brother."

"Oh, ok."

I looked at my strange counterpart, wanting to ask more about it only for Gus to come up to us and hand us a stick each. "Thanks," I offered out of reflex, taking the stick from his hand. Mason grabbed his stick and Gus went on to Mabel taking a seat next to Mason.

"Ok, who wants what?" Wendy asked, kneeling down next to the bag sitting at Mabel's feet.

After a mass of everyone grabbing food from the girl I ended up with a lone hotdog on my stick and held it into the fire to cook it. At least hotdogs you could eat straight out of the bag. I'd never cooked them before. I just didn't want it to turn into charcoal. Leaning forwards, I stuck my hotdog in the fire, a part of me worried my bandages might catch fire.

I glanced over at Mabel and saw she was already working on charring a butter cookie resting on her stick through the hole in the cookie. They had managed to find three types of cookies with holes to use.

Dan was telling some story about how he fought a moose bare handed and had the antlers to prove it, blathering on to Thompson and Marcus who had sat on the far side of the fire. I glanced to my left and saw Robbie and Tambry talking to each other low enough I couldn't hear them and Wendy telling Gus about Mason. To my right, pass Mason who was asking Mabel for some of her glitter, Nate and Lee pulled out cookies and marshmallows from the bag between our log and theirs to make a melted mass with Kevin's help. A smile pulled at my face as everyone seemed to be happy.

"Uh, I think your hotdog's done," Mason said, drawing my attention back to the frank on my stick in the fire.

I pulled it out and blew out the flame only for my smile to drop at the sight of the black shell now around my dog. I let out a sigh from the side of my mouth and went to pinch it only for it to be too hot touch. "Crud."

"Here, trade," Mason handed me his done hotdog and stick, it not being as charred as mine, and took my stick.

"Thanks," I said, pulling his dog off the stick and eating it.

"The trick's to wait till it just starts changing color," Mason offered, going ahead and eating my burnt mess.

'That's so cool, I wonder what I'm like in another dimension," Gus said, getting my attention.

"Well there's one where you save the town from aliens," Mason said, clearly overhearing as well.

"What, really?" Gus asked, his eyes wide.

I glanced at Mason, wondering if he knew the kid why did he ask who he was for Mason to answer the unasked questioned low enough Gus couldn't hear him. "Gus was an orphan in that dimension."

I finished my hotdog, not sure how to respond to that. Instead I asked, "Can you pass the bag?"

Mason reached over Mabel's back as she was perfecting her cookie warming and pulled back the plastic bag.

I took the bag from him and pulled out what I'd need for a s'more, balancing my gram cracker, chocolate bar, and marshmallow on my knee as I handed him back the bag. I stuck my marshmallow on my stick as Robbie, Tambry, and Wendy started changing, "Scary Story! Scare Story!" I looked at them and saw Gus join in as they looked at Mason. I turned back to look at Mason, who was getting his own parts of a s'more out of the bag, as Lee, Nate, and Thompson joined in. I gave him a smile and joined in as he held up his hands, a smile on his face.

"Alright, alright," Mason said, quieting everyone down. Waiting till he had everyone's attention, he poked his marshmallow in the fire, reminding me to check my own. I pulled mine out and blew out the fire, determining it to be done. I went ahead and started putting my s'more together as Mason started his story. "If you don't know by now, I have been jumping dimensions for the past two years looking for the journal my great uncle wrote that would save my dimension. A few dimensions back I ended up in a Gravity Falls that had succumbed to a terrible loss. The Dipper there had managed to defeat Bill without the help of Stanford, due to the man never coming back, but it cost him his sanity and the lives of about half of everyone here around the fire."

I took a bite of my warm s'more, not even paying attention to the hot mess it made.

"By the time I arrived it was the dead of winter, hunting for a leather bound book under at least a foot of snow. The best I could hope for was that someone had already found it so I headed to the Mystery Shack," Mason said, his story holding us all. "I found the shack in its normal state of disarray that seems to follow it no matter the dimension but the door was left cracked open. I pushed the door opened, calling out 'Pines! Pines?'" Mason looked over at the log to our right as he added, "No response. I stepped into the shack, trying to find any sign of life but no light was on. Was this another realm where I didn't have any family left? Just as I was about to give up on the shack," Mason let out a rasping cough, covering his mouth with his fist. He paused a moment before looking around with a confused look on his face. "It sounded like it came from down the hall," Mason continued. "Carefully I made it down the hallway and called out 'Pines' once more.

"'Jesus, t'at you?' It was Stan! I hurried to the room his voice came from and pushed open the door only to find Stan in his bed, whiter than the tank top he wore. His head fell over on the pillow to look at me only for his eyes to grow wide with fear."

I took the last bite of my s'more only to notice the melted marshmallow and chocolate had run down my hands and onto the gauze on both hands. Figuring it was better to take off the bandages then have my hands sticky all night, I quickly ripped them off and threw them in the fire, noticing Gus staring at my still scratched arms.

"'Dipper, you're back?' Stan said only for his face to relax as he closed his eyes. I stood there, beside his bed as the old man struggled to breath. It hit me, this Stan was on his death bed. Another cough took hold but I just stood and watched. A moment passed of him trying to catch his breath before he said, 'I'm sorry. Years ago I made a deal with a devil. I never found my brother so you took the punishment.'

"'What punishment?' I asked, confused. I knew Stan didn't have much time left but I needed some answers.

"'Have you seen this… man?' Stan asked only to let out his final breath.

"Left with nothing else to go on, I looked around his room and found a strange drawing of a man I couldn't say I knew personally but had seen. It was the face of the man with no dimension to call his own, instead he appears in everyone's dreams, watching, waiting. If this was the devil he had made a deal with, everyone left was in grave danger." Quicker then I paid attention to, Mason reached beside him and tossed something into the fire, creating a loud bang as the flames grew higher for a quick second. "A shot gun! Someone was shooting inside the house!" Mason exclaimed. "I dove for cover behind Stan's bed. A haha ha!" He let out a strange cackling sound. "It was him!" Mason said, sounding as fearful as he must've been that day it happened. "He was in the house and I could swore he knew I was there. This being was friends with Bill and more powerful. I heard the floorboards in the shack creak as the man walked through the shack. His footsteps drew closer to Stan's room as I looked around, the only window being a small stain glass rectangle close to the ceiling. No escape that way. Journal or no journal, I needed to get out. I pulled out my portable portal and plugged in home only for it to give me a small shock as the green screen went dead." He tossed another handful of glitter into the fire to signify another shot had rung out.

"'Mason Pines! I know you're behind the bed. Hiding behind your dead great uncle, how sad.' He was in the room now.

"Out of options, I stood up with my portable portal still in my hands. 'What do you want with me?' I asked him.

"This was the first time I'd seen him in person. He looked like the most average man ever, close cut hair, clean shaven, black business suit, just holding a shotgun resting with the butt in his shoulder and the barrel pointed at me. He lowered the gun and laughed. 'I, oh no, but Stanley did promise me a sibling so I took one.' He stepped farther into the room and revealed that dimension's Dipper under his control.

"I'd already had to fight myself before and I didn't want to do so again. I had to think of something else. As I was trying to find something, the portable portal in my hands gave off a loud spark!" As he said this he made a pooping sound, like a tazer, from Mabel's side, getting me and a few others to jump. "I glanced down and it was working again! I dialed in a random dimension and activated the portal as I threw the device at the man. In a flash of green he disappeared and Dipper fell to the floor, unconscious. I don't remember the dimension so every new one I go to I try to keep an eye out for the man everyone has seen but no one knows. Be careful, for tonight he could appear in your nightmares!" He punctuated the end of his story by throwing a large handful of glitter into the fire, getting a girlish scream from my left. I looked over to see Robbie had fallen backwards, off his log and was laughing to cover up his embarrassment.

"Uhm, any chance you might've sent him here?" Kevin asked.

"What? No," Mason said as he and I stood up and took a step around the fire to see the thirteen year old, Nate, and Lee staring passed Dann, Marcus, and Thompson into the woods.

I followed their line of sight only to stair in fear as a man disappeared into the shadows.

"No way! Hey! Wait!" Mason called out, rushing forward only to stop when Manly Dan stood up and grabbed his shoulder.

"Let him go," Dan ordered, turning to look where the man disappeared.

"But I changed the story," Mason admitted. He pointed to the woods as he looked up at Dan and added, "I killed him that night."  
Dan looked at Mason for a moment, waiting for Mason to drop his hand and nod his head before letting go of his shoulder. Dan turned to face the rest of us and announced, "Bonfire's over. Kevin, Gus, start hosing this fire out, Marcus, go with your sister and get everyone back to the house.

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AN: Shameless Plug Time! If you like my stuff, be it Gravity Falls, Danny Phantom, or Disney then check out my published book Harley Davis: Teenage Superhero! It's on Amazon where you can buy either the e-book or the paperback.


	12. Chapter 12 Thursday

Chapter 12

Thursday

"Hey! Look alive!" Stan ordered. "I'm not paying you all to slack off!"

I peeked my eyes over my D,D, and More D Monthly as I pointed out, "You're not paying us at all, Grunkle Stan." I closed my magazine and leaned against the edge of Wendy's counter that Mabel laid on and Mason leaned against the other end. "Actually, don't you think you should be paying us? We're part-time help, not volunteers."

"Oh look at that! Someone just pulled up!" Stan said, looking out the door's window. I looked out to see someone in an old beat-up RV pulling up and looked back at Stan. He gave me a smile before pulling down his eyepatch and rushed to throw open the door.

I tossed my magazine under the counter as Mabel jumped off the top.

"Hello! Welcome to the one and only Mystery Shack!" Stan's voice boomed as he started his spiel. "I am _the_ Mr. Mystery, back from my trip around the world and I've found even stranger things to hold in my museum of the unknown."

"Where's Soos?" I asked, just noticing the last I saw him was at breakfast.

"Where were you? Melody's plane is arriving today," Mabel said.

"Oh, ok." I liked Melody and it was great the two were still dating, even with their first date being overshadowed by .

"Yeah, we'll go through the tour." I looked up to see an old man that's pot belly could rival Stan's standing in a Hawaiian shirt. He looked thrilled where as his two grandkids both were pouting with their arms crossed over their chest.

"Great! Fifteen bucks for adults, ten for children under ten. Come this way!" Stan led the three through the gift stop and leaned towards me as he noticed the man stopping to pull out his wallet. "Quick, I need awkward wolf boy."

I just stared at him, not dignifying it with a response as I heard the girl say, "Seriously? Under ten?"

"Fine, we'll talk about you getting paid, alright?" Stan eyed the three getting the money out before saying, "And get Mason dressed up too." Stan left me rolling my eyes and quickly held out his hands in a greeting posture. "I see you three've already been traveling quite some way for summer. I myself have traveled the world and seen creatures far beyond your imagination."

"I doubt it," the boy grumbled, messing with his large watch.

"Ben," the old man gilded.

I pushed myself away from the counter and said, "Come on Mason, we better get paid for this." I headed to the Employees Only door, only knowing Mason was following me by his footsteps echoing mine into the house.

"What are we doing?" Mason asked, following me up the stairs.

I itched the scratch on my wrist, glad Ford had let me go without the bandaging now. "He wants us to dress up like Wolf Boy. I guess he thinks we'll get them to buy more junk or something."

"Wolf boy?"

I stopped just in the attic, before the part sectioned off that was my room, and opened a box to find all the costumes Stan, and now Soos, used. Digging through I quickly found the coarse fur that made up the pants. I pulled them out, finding both pairs quickly, and passed one to Mason. I kept digging until I found two sets of ears and two tails on belts and we quickly got changed. As I was putting on the tail belt Mason came out of the room dressed in his costume still with the weird heart necklace around his neck.

"The necklace really does make you look like an awkward wolf boy," I pointed out.

Mason grabbed the heart in his fist and looked at me. "I don't take it off," he said simply.

"Why?"

"It was Mabel's."

Oh, that made sense now.

Mason let go of the heart and said, 'Come on, Stan's waiting on us, isn't he?" He walked passed me and headed down the stairs, showing me a burn that stretched across his back. Stunned, I let him disappeared from sight before following him.

I rushed down the stairs, careful not to let my tail trip me up, and caught up to Mason in the living room. We hurried in silence through the gift shop, I made sure not to look at Wendy, and rushed into the museum. We managed to stay out of the three's line of sight and got to where the human wolf stood. We joined the strange taxidermy of Frankenstein and waited.

"I feel like I'm half naked," I mumbled, grabbing my elbow to try and cover my stomach.

Mason let out a quiet laugh and said, "You _are_ half naked."

"Here we have the last two remaining Wolf Boys, I was lucky enough to find these two, the survivors of a terrible poaching incident up north," Stan said, leading the family to us. The red head girl looked at us with sad eyes, making me look down, hoping my bangs would cover my blushing. Beside me Mason dripped down in a crouch and let out a growl, stepping in front of me.

"You poor things," the girl said.

"Gwen, it's just two guys dressed up!" Ben exclaimed, holding both hands towards us.

The old man clicked a picture of us, Mason playing the part of a now blinded wolf kid and rubbing his eyes with his wrist, and said, "Kids, just enjoy it."

"And over here we have the world famous Sascroch," Stan said, moving the small tour along. I looked up, hoping to see them walk away only to catch the red head's eye. Quickly I looked away, wishing they would hurry up and move on to the next section of the tour so we could leave.

I itched my thigh, as close as I could get to the real itch from these stupid pants, as Mason asked low enough the guests couldn't hear, "Does Stan make you do this a lot?"

"You've no idea," I rolled my eyes. "It could be worse, he doesn't know about the lamb thing."

"Oh, the lamby dance?"

"You had it too?"

"If only we had known what we were getting ourselves into, huh?" Mason said with a nod.

I heard a picture being taken and looked over to see Stan had brought the tour out of sight of us and the door. "Let's get outta these costumes while we have the chance."

-.-.-.-

"Quack quack!"

"But of course! The butler! No one would suspect him!"

"But there's no way it was the butler!" Grenda exclaimed to the TV from her seat on the floor next to Candy and Mabel. "He was serving at the party outside when it happened."

"But didn't she say he had disappeared?" Candy asked.

"Right! He disappeared right after the neighbors showed up," Mable said as the Duck-tective's subtitles said the same.

"Do you really like this show?" Mason whispered, leaning towards me as we sat on the other side of Stan's legs from the girls.

I shrugged my shoulders. "It's ok. Who can say no to mindless entertainment?"

"But it's a duck."

"Duck-tective," Stan corrected. "Shush."

I looked back to the screen as the butler was put in cuffs, "and I would've gotten away with it if it wasn't for that medaling duck!"

"Quack qu-quack," the duck said. Just my job.

The TV cut out, just showing us a screen of blue, as cries of despair came from the girls.

"This stupid TV, someone go over and kick it," Stan said.

I leaned to uncross my legs only to lose my balance. I held out my hands, confused why I felt like I was falling only to start floating.

"Whoa!" Mabel exclaimed.

"Gravity's not working again!" Grenda said, grabbing hold of Candy and Mabel.

"Ford!" I turned my head and saw Stan had gripped both armrests to stay in the seat.

I went ahead and straightened my legs, hoping to be prepared when gravity came back only to drop to the ground as it did just that. I landed on one foot and fell towards my right, landing on Mason's lap. The TV came back on, showing a commercial for Throwing Controllers, as I pushed off of him and got to my feet. Looking around to assess the damage, somehow the aquarium survived though I could see the kitchen table had fallen over and some of the chairs made it through the doorway.

"Everyone alright?" Mason asked as he stood up.

"Yeah," Grenda said.

"I think so," Candy said

"Give me a moment to answer that," Stan offered. I looked back at the man and smiled, his hands still gripping the armrests as a pained look crossed his face.

"Sorry! Everyone alright?" Ford said as he and McGucket rushed into the living room.

"Warn us next time, Poindexter!" Stan yelled, eyeing his brother from his seat in the chair.

"We're getting the portal working so there might be a few more," McGucket said.

"I might be able to go home?" Mason asked.

"Maybe tomorrow or Saturday," Ford offered. "It was easy enough to get it up and running again but getting rid of the bug that works against the Earth's magnetic field and finding your dimension's going to take some trial an error."

I glanced back at Mason to see hope clear on his face. "I'll do what I can to help."

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AN: OK, so not much happens on Thursday…

AN: Shameless Plug Time! If you like my stuff, be it Gravity Falls, Danny Phantom, or Disney then check out my published book Harley Davis: Teenage Superhero! It's on Amazon where you can buy either the e-book or the paperback.


	13. Chapter 13 Hopper

Chapter 13

Hopper

"Working in the fourth dimension is like playing Tetris," McGucket paused as realization crossed his face. "You do know what Tetris is, right?"

"Yeah," I said. I looked passed the old man, through the glass, to see the portal swirling blue light as Ford dialed in a coordinates, looking for Seven Star Eighty-One.

"Four D is like Tetris, you have to think passed 'if the block currently in play will block you off from getting rid of one line' and instead think 'after this block disappears will it make it easier to completing the game'?"

I turned my eyes back to the man as he continued. "Length, breadth, thickness, and duration is the four dimensions, and with realm we make five so in Tetris you'd have to add in the different outcomes of your game if you place one block down."

"So thinking in 5D would be thinking instead of what we see, it's what is there in other realms and times," I said, trying to wrap my brain around the old man's ramblings.

"Darn toie!" McGucket slapped his knee as he smiled at me.

I took that as I understood the concept and smiled back.

"Ok, here's where the trial and error comes in," Ford said, taking a step away from the control panel to show me they had wired in one of McGucket's laptops to give them better control. I could see a page of code and equations written in green on a black program running through the machine. "I can tell levels of elements in the air and can tell the portal's opening just above the ground but because I don't have a proper way of determining what dimension is what, someone will have to go in and find how far off from Gravity Falls I am and what dimension I've got opened up."

My eyes opened wide at the thought of traveling dimensions as Ford turned to Mason. "I'm sure you're willing to help."

Mason nodded his head, in his hands was his journal of the dimensions he'd been to.

Ford turned to me and asked, "How 'bout it? Want to join the short list of dimension travelers?"

"Yes! Of course!" I said, trying to lower my voice. I bit my bottom lip and gave him a smile.

"We need to run one more test. Mason, tell him anything you think he might need to know," Ford said as McGucket went over to the control panel.

I looked to Mason as he sat his journal down on a piece of unused machinery.

"Going through dimensions is going to feel like being squashed, remember you belong to this dimension and the universe knows that so it doesn't particularly like you leaving it," Mason started out with. "To me it always feels like being squashed in blankets so it's not too bad but can be startling the first time." I nodded my head. "Don't open your mouth. The space between dimensions tastes rank. Oh, and another thing, for while you're going through the portal, keep walking. For a moment you won't be able to see the other end of the portal so just walk straight until you do."

I took a breath and said, "Ok." Butterflies flew around in my stomach but I wasn't going to get sick. I was going to go to another dimension.

"Ok, everything's ready." I turned back to Ford as he explained, "I've set it up so the portal won't close till I close it here. We'll have to let it cool down in between tries but it's safer this way. You ready?"

"Yeah." I followed Mason into the adjacent room and walked passed the caution tape on the floor, leaving Mason behind. I stopped at the foot of the steps, the blue portal looming over me. I took a deep breath. I was finally doing this. My first trip into an actual other dimension. I took the steps up to the portal and looked into the blue swirling mass. I grabbed the railing as my heart was beating hard enough I was sure Ford could hear it in the next room.

"You sure you're up to this?" Mason asked.

I turned to look down at him and nodded my head, not trusting my voice to not crack. I turned back to the blue portal and took the last step into it. For a moment it felt like I was being squished, like Mason had warned, but instead of blankets it felt more alive. More like a type of flesh and muscle that I was pushing through. Ugh, the thought or the motion was fighting with the butterflies still in my stomach.

The next step I took took me out of the portal and into a crop field full of little green plants. The crops surrounded a year, the corner marked with a boat under a tree and a little over hang with old metal chairs and a table. Beyond was a shed and house, a smaller house just to the right. My eyes fell on three teens, somewhere around my age, and a large dog. The brown haired kid quickly swiped a stick out of the air and waved at me with his other hand.

I waved back, trying to be polite, as I started walking to the three. The one girl crossed her arms over her chest as the two guys waited for me to make my way to them as the dog eyed the stick and teen holding it with his tongue hanging out.

I made it out of the crops and called out, "Hey!" I wasn't sure if they'd seen me come out of the portal but with a quick glance over my shoulder I could tell it was still there in the field. At least they weren't freaking out, that was a good sign.

I stopped a few feet away only to have the large dog come over to me. I held out a hand to let the dog smell as I said, "This is weird, but where am I?"

The dog licked my hand before shoving his head so I could start petting him.

"What are you doing? Playing real life GeoGuesser?" the girl asked, raising as eyebrow. I noticed her hair was long in the front and short in the back, giving her a weird look.

I didn't know what GeoGuesser was so I get her a shrug, taking my hands away from the dog.

"You're in Ely Bridge, Virginia," the teen still holding the stick offered.

"Where were you aiming for?" the other guy asked, his muscles built similar to how Manly Dan looked.

"I don't even think this is the right dimension," I admitted, looking around. This wasn't what I expected from what I had read out of the journal.

"Well, if it helps, this is four slash ninety-four," the teen with the stick offered as the dog, board of me, turned back to eye the stick.

"Is that forward slash or back slash?" I knew it was actually important even though it felt weird to nitpick over something so small.

The teen threw the stick to my right, sending the dog running after it, as he said, "I think forward slash."

"Cool, thanks," I said, giving them a smile before turning around.

"Hey! Wait!"

I froze at the girl's voice and looked over my shoulder.

"Where are you from?"

"Gravity Falls, Oregon. Fourty-six apostrophe backslash."

The girl gave me a smile, giving me my chance to leave back for the blue portal suspended in space time. Walking back through, it felt like the membrane pushed me, knowing I belonged in this direction. I stepped out of the portal, a split second before I placed my foot down I remembered there was steps so I didn't fall straight on my face.

"Where'd you end up?" Mason asked as I stepped down the stairs to the lab floor. Behind me the portal powered down, a sound I was sure I'd be hearing a lot today. I looked through the window to see McGucket typing away and Ford opening the door.

"Ely Bridge, Virginia. Four forward slash ninety-four."

Ford disappeared back into the control room as Mason and I followed behind him. "Oh, that's the one that's got some weird-o vigilante."

"Vigilante?" I echoed

"You know, someone who tries to help the law and emergency people, I think he's called the Flying Biker 'cause his helmet looks like a motorcycle helmet," Mason explained. We stepped to the side of the control panel, just through the doorway, to see Ford writing something on a piece of paper while McGucket clicked away on the keyboard. "How'd you end up finding out everything in just a couple of minutes?"

"Lucked out, I guess," I gave him a shrug. Now that he said that it did get me thinking, how'd that kid know the dimension number? I only knew mine from dealing with people who had jumped dimensions.

"What if you had found the Flying Biker?" Mason let out a laugh.

"Ha, that would be funny," I said, smiling back.

"Ok, we should be good to try again, how're you feeling?" Ford asked, turning to look at me.

"Great."

Ford nodded, a smile on his face as he turned back to the equipment. The two men went and punched in new coordinates as I stepped back into the portal room. The portal came alive with a raising tone and sparked as blue swirling light filled the hole. I glanced back to make sure it was ready and saw Ford give me a thumbs up. I smiled back before turning back to the portal. Walking up the steps, I made my way back through dimensions, not sure if I'd ever get used to the weird squishing feeling all around me. I took my final step out of the portal and found myself in a pine forest.

"Hello?" I called out. Pine trees, the ground under a pine carpet. It looked like Gravity Falls but then again, pine trees were normal anywhere up north. I turned back, making sure I could still see the portal as I kept walking. I turned back to watching where I was going and called out another "Hello!" only to get a bird to respond. I was starting to wonder if there wasn't even a town in this dimension, it was possible. But at least we might've found the right area.

A grunt caught my attention, getting me to hurry forward as the sound of chopping wood rang out, another grunt following. I looked passed a large pine tree and stared at the woman chopping the wood on a stump. Her red hair was pulled back and braided and a flannel jacket was tied around her waist. It was Jenny Corduroy! She was alive!

"I know you're there," the woman said.

I hid farther behind the tree out of surprise. This wasn't the dimension I wasn't looking for, Mason said she had died in '07.

"Are you gonna come out and talk or hide like a little foal?" Jenny asked, the sound of her ax hitting the stump one more time following her words.

I stepped around the tree and saw she had stabbed her ax into the stump and was resting her hands on her hips. She looked just like she had in the picture Wendy had shown me.

"Are you lost?"

"I, uh, I took a wrong turn, I think," I said. This may be the wrong dimension but I needed to know if I had found a dimension where Wendy had all her family.

"Oh, aren't you the Pines boy? I guess it is summer again, isn't it?" Jenny asked, the last part more to herself.

I nodded my head. "Yeah, I was looking for Wendy."

Jenny picked up her ax again, tugging it effortlessly out of the wood, and reached down to grab a log to be cut. She swiftly chopped it in half and reached for a new piece as she said, "I don't know what you're playing at, boy, but it's not funny."

"What do you mean? What happened to Wendy?"

"She died six years ago," Jenny said, slamming down her ax, sending the pieces flying closer to me.

I stepped back, worried for both splinters and the woman wielding the ax. "What?" I asked.

"That stupid portal, and I couldn't save my own daughter," Jenny grumbled just loud enough I could make it out. She looked at me and asked, "How do _you_ know about her?"

I stood with my mouth open, not sure what to say. She hadn't seen me come out of the portal and it seemed she blamed people from portals for Wendy's death. "I, huh, I found her name… in… my great uncle's book," I lied. It wasn't exactly fluid but hopefully she just took me as scared.

"Mr. Ford, should've expected he wrote down the event," Jenny said, pulling up a new log to cut. She chopped the log and said, "Well he should've wrote about her death as well." She grabbed a new log and chopped it as she added, "I couldn't protect my own daughter."

I wanted to tell her where I came from Wendy had survived but how could I do that? And it wasn't like I could take Jenny back with me. "I'm sorry," I offered. I watched her continue chopping wood for a moment before taking my leave. I kept glancing over my shoulder as I made my way back to the portal. I got back to the swirling blue mass but I still didn't know what dimension I was in. She knew Ford so maybe I could find him real quick. If the Corduroy's were over here then the Mystery Shack should be… north of here? A quick glance at the sun and hoping it was just after noon here as well, I turned to the north and started walking. I hope it didn't take too long to walk, we normally rode.

As I walked through the forest, I kept my eyes open for any sign of life. The forest had a few birds and bugs chirping but it felt quieter than it should.

"Come on Dipper!" Mabel's voice surprised me enough I jumped.

"Star! Wait up!"

I caught a glimpse of my counterpart and his sister through the trees, the other Dipper climbing over a large log while Mabel's back faced me as she waited.

"Come on, you two, I thought kids had more energy," Ford's voice said, his head just appearing over the log before he put his hands on it and propelled himself over. I stared for a moment, surprised to see Ford in a polo t-shirt.

Dipper tumbled over the log and landed in a heap before pushing himself back to his feet. "I don't like P.E. for a reason, Grunkle Ford," he mumbled, wiping off his long pants.

"Neither was I, but it's good for you," Ford said. He turned to face me as I made my way through some overgrown brush and called out, "Who's there!?"

"Just me!" I called out, holding up my hands to show I was unarmed. I stopped just out of the overgrown, making sure there was a good distance between this dimension's Dipper and myself.

"Dipper? But…" Mabel looked between her Dipper and me, confusion on her face.

"Ford, uh, you wouldn't happen to know the name of this one, would you?" I asked. I tried to make it as vague as possible, unsure if this Dipper and Mabel knew what Ford had gotten into.

"Name of what? Who _are_ you?" Ford asked, stepping closer to look me over. He pushed up his glasses as he squinted at me.

"Just a dimension traveler," I shrugged only to have Ford walk around me. "We're trying to find one and I was trying to gather dimension names of the wrong ones."

"Wrong ones?" the other Dipper asked.

"Just so we don't end up coming here on accident a second time," I tried.

"Who's we?" Ford asked, stopping so he stood protectively in front of his grandchildren.

"My Ford and I," I needed to get back, the machine had to be overheating by now. "Hey, if you don't know the dimension name, I should be going."

'It's two-oh-seven S," Ford said.

I gave him a smile, "Thanks." I turned around and rushed back the way I had come. I wasn't running, but I knew I needed to get home. I heard a twig snap behind me once I thought but when I turned I didn't see anything. By that time I rounded a tree and could see the blue portal still floating just above the pine straw floor. I stopped in front of the portal and looked back to see my counterpart just now catching up. He quickly ducked behind a tree, noticing my eyes. "Bye!" I called out, waving towards their hiding spots before stepping through the portal.

I walked down the stairs to see Mason just stopping at the base.

"You ok? I was about to come in after you," Mason said as the portal behind me powered down.

"Yeah, it took me longer then I had hoped to find the name," I offered, walking passed him and towards the door. I stopped before going through and turned to look back at Mason. "Oh, how can you touch me without us disappearing? I just had a run in with another me- er, us."

"Oh, here," Mason said, putting his hand in his pocket. He pulled his hand out in a fist and held it to me. I cupped my hands together and he let drop a small brown rock no bigger than my finger nail in the shape of a cross. "It's a fairy stone."

"A fairy stone?" Ford echoed, getting me to turn my head to see the man had walked in and now stood next to me.

"Yeah, I found out about it in, uh, C one thirty-seven I think. It should be in my journal," Mason offered. "I think he said it tricks molecules into believing you belong to a dimension. It doesn't make everything believe it, but it evens out two same people touching so nothing happens."

"Fascinating," Ford said, looking the rock over. "Does it naturally occur like this?"

"Yeah, I dug these out myself, but they only occur in a few dimensions," Mason explained. He looked back at me and said, "Put it in your pocket and you'll be fine if you run into another us."

I looked back at the small cross stone in my hands before sliding it to my right hand and put it in my pants pocket.

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AN: for any of you who actually understand quantum physics, I'm so sorry. I did my best to understand it while I was working on this section, and actually enjoyed the books I found, but I don't feel like I understood the concept as well as I would like to have. Crash course on Quantum Physics when I never had a Physics class, yeah…. Fun times.


	14. Chapter 14 Mable Pines

Chapter 14

Mable Pines

"Maybe tomorrow we'll find your home," I said as I peeked the staircase to the attic. I looked over at the window seat Mason had been calling a bed for the past couple of nights only to see he was already curled up under the extra blanket, asleep. His book bag sat on the floor below his head and not for the first time I was tempted to look through it. What other worldly devices might he have in there? I mean, he was technically me so it wouldn't be wrong, right? I took the final step over to him and stopped.

"You know I _was_ asleep," Mason moaned, opening his eyes.

"Sorry," I offered, taking a step back.

"What is it?" Mason asked, sitting up. The blanket slid down to his lap, showing he slept in just his underwear.

"I, uh," I wasn't sure what to say.

Mason looked down at his bag and looked back at me. "You know, we may have grown up different but I still am you. We're curious, can't be helped."

"So what's in the bag?" I asked bluntly.

"Cloths, a small bag of extra fairy stones, my journal," Mason listed off.

He was hiding something. He sounded like I did when I was avoiding something. But it felt wrong to point it out to him.

"Oh, could you put that dimension with Mabel being called Star in my journal?" Mason asked, reaching down to grab his bag. He pulled it up to his lap and unzipped it to pull out the leather journal. He zipped the bag back up and handed me the book. "If you want, you can read through more of it too, before I have to leave."

"Thanks," I said, looking at the jewel on the cover.

Mason put the bag back on the floor and laid back down. "Night."

I looked at the bag as I said, "Night." Nice distraction, giving me something else I'd been curious about. Though I did wanna go through his journal. I turned around and headed into the room me and Mabel shared.

"Come down here right now, Squeaker!" Mabel ordered, standing on her bed in her night shirt looking up into the rafters.

I shut the door behind me and looked up to see the squall perched on one of the beams of wood in our ceiling with his wings wide open for balance. "He'll come down if he sees you in bed," I said, remembering the past few nights he'd curled up in Mabel's blankets.

"I just don't want him to fall asleep up there, what if he falls while he's asleep?" Mabel asked, jumping off her bed. She rushed to her back pack and pulled out her grappling hook.

I rolled my eyes at her and went to sit on my bed, finding Pikme had already claimed a part of it. I sat next to him and looked up to see Mabel had grappled the ceiling above the squall. She pulled herself up to the beam and held out a hand. "Come here," she said in a sing song voice.

I watched as the creature dropped his wings back to his side and crawled off the plank to her hand. She lowered herself back to the ground and hit the button to release the grip as she went back to her bed were Waddles was already making his sleeping spot at her feet. I'd never tell her, but it was cool how she always seemed to be able to understand animals.

I opened up the journal and reached over to the table beside my bed for a pen. Flipping to the next blank page I quickly wrote about two-oh-seven S, writing as much as I could about Jenny and the family I'd run into. I finished with Wendy's death and clicked my pen closed. Sitting my pen on my left side, now that Pikme had scooted closer, and flipped back to the front.

 _February 4, 2011_

 _I don't know if this day will be marked in history or not but today I start my_ _voyage_ _trek_ _trip. Four years ago, Susan B. Antony threw Great Uncle Ford's last journal into a portal. Today I became the first kid, no, first human to travel dimensions. Fiddleford has made me promise to keep track of the days and come home every month. I guess he feels responsible for me now._

 _I don't understand the order behind the number each dimension is called, or even why it's called a number. Ours even has a star in its so called "number". But I'll follow the order Fiddleford created in the portable portal. My first stop will be P4E21._

 _My first dimension and man it's an eye opener! Fiddleford had started my list of dimensions with what he considered the most likely for Sue to have thrown the journal into but he forgot to tell me it was one molecularly different than our own. My last step through the portal changed my molecules into something out of Japan, the colors here are still too bright for my eyes to comprehend. The people here don't speak any language I know so asking around has proven useless. Right now I have taken a break from my hike in an all too bright forest in my search. I haven't figured out how long I'll stay before I go on and move to the nest one._

 _I might've made contact with a person! I had drawn a picture of Great Uncle Ford's journal while out eating lunch, if I could call it that, and asked around hoping body language would work and it did. A girl a few years older than me has pulled me along and now I wait in some sort of museum._

I let out a laugh at the last, hasty line written at the bottom of the page.

 _No, it was her grandma's and not the book._

 _February 7, 2011_

 _9^'R -what type of "number" is that?_

 _Strange number aside, at least this one brings me to a dimension that looks and feels like home. Two days in that chibi world was too many for me. There isn't a town where Gravity Falls is for me but I lucked out and found a lumberjack living in the woods. He's said my accent is weird, he sounds like he's British to me._

 _He assures me he knows every tree in these woods and would've seen it if the journal was here. I'll probably just stay a day and look around myself._

I started flipped through, remembering he was eleven when he started this. A few of the early pages held two dimensions each, though as I got closer to our birthday I noticed he tried to put more into each dimension's description.

I found a page dated August 30, 2011 with the title of S4-93 only for Mabel to turn out her lamp and leave me to the darkness. "Mabel!" I whined, barely able to make her out as she crawled into bed with Waddles and the squall.

"I wanna go to sleep," Mabel said. "Last night you stayed up until two, I need to catch up."

I looked over at the clock beside her bed and saw it had just passed eleven. Maybe I should let her get some sleep tonight. I pushed Pikme over a bit so I could stand up and grabbed Mason's journal and the lantern. As quietly as I could I left the room and made my way down stairs. As I passed the living room I lit a match and lit my lantern only to freeze, seeing Ford sitting in the chair in front of the TV. Recovering, I blew out my match and made sure to look at his eyes. I couldn't see them for the reflection of my lantern on his glasses. I don't know why I was still worried about this, but my gut reaction now was to check eyes.

"Couldn't sleep?" Ford asked.

"Couldn't put down this," I said, casually lowering my lantern. I let out a sigh of relief, seeing his brown eyes. "Bill, uh…" How to word it? "Bill's dead, right?"

"No."

I stared at him in surprise. I gripped the handle to the lantern tighter.

"Just like how Stanley managed to regain most of his memories, Bill could reanimate from his stone prison," Ford said, looking down at his lap as he laced his fingers together. He leaned forward as to lean on his knees. He let out a sigh after a moment before saying, "I haven't proven it, so it's only a theory for the moment, but I have reason to believe he could come back." He looked up at me and asked, "Do you know of anyone else he overshadowed?"

"I'm sure Gideon, maybe Bud."

"Then the four of us will have to be careful."

I looked at him confused. "Why us?"

"Ever since we got back, I've been running tests on my brain in my sleep. I've found something akin to a virus, never growing, never moving, but still there in my brain. Bill left it there, as a part of him, his foot print so to say."

"So is there a way to get rid of this virus?" I asked, scared I might have it as well.

"I'm working on it."

"But Bill could come back to life 'cause of the virus?"

"Yes," Ford stated. "There's at least one, possibly four, living pieces of him."

"So you wanna run those tests on me?" I gulped, worried a part of Bill would be found in me. And all because I wanted a stupid password.

"Once I make it easier to sleep with," Ford nodded his head. "How are you and Mason coming at decoding the symbols?"

I reached for my small note pad normally in my inside vest pocket only to remember I was already dressed for bed and the notepad was upstairs. "We've figured out all the vowels, common letters like RSTLN Mason already had, we've added H and I think K. It'll go quicker now that we have a lot of the more used letters."

"How did you figure out Bill's?" Ford asked.

"Well he did give it to you," I admitted, still confused how Ford missed it.

Ford's eyebrows increased, confused.

"Close to the end of what you wrote back thirty years ago, Bill had used you to draw out a wheel with symbols. Each symbol had a number that correlated with the alphabet. I wish I had noticed it earlier but still, he made it easy at least. Sue's not giving us anything like that."

"Dudes, you ok?" Soos asked, getting me to turn around and see the man standing in his underwear.

"Didn't mean to wake you," Ford offered.

"I was heading to the front porch anyway," I admitted.

"Think in the morning, act in the noon, eat in the evening, and sleep in the night for all are important," Soos said.

"True words. Good night, Soos," Ford said as he pushed himself out of the chair.

Soos turned around and walked back down the hall, leaving us to the silent living room.

"You mind if I join you?"

Sure." I led him outside and hung the lantern on the nail just above the sofa. We sat down on the old sofa and I opened the journal back to the day before my birthday only to realize he'd be missing the beginning. "Uh, you want me to start at the beginning?"

"You don't need to," Ford said, stopping me as I flipped back to the beginning.

"Ok." I flipped back to the page I had left off at and read aloud to Ford, "August thirtieth, two thousand eleven. S four ninety-three. For the last one of the month, S four ninety-three looks laughably childish. Who would've thought I'd miss the hospital like two less than oh-seven? Here I haven't found anyone older then maybe a year though I was sure I just saw Manly Dan tugging along with an ax. I'm trying to find their caretakers but no one seems to be doing that. Oddly enough, these babies seem to take care of themselves. Too bad none of them talk or even have more than a moment of an attention span. I guess I'll spend the next three days or so looking for the journal.

"I don't normally date things that occur during a trip, but today is the thirty-first. Like I have done for the past three years I managed to convince baby Stanford to let me use what could be called a kitchen and make Mabel's Hearts and Unicorns Chocolate Cake. I couldn't find any toys to bake into it this year so it was missing the Hearts and Unicorns part but I might have found that she added three extra cups of sugar instead of just two. I gave Stanford all but two slices, Mabel her's and mine already gone…" My voice fell away as my mind read on. _With my wish I pray I find the journal soon and with her's I pray I might find a way to go back in time and prevent this whole mess. I want_ _my_ _Mabel back._

"Dipper?" Ford asked.

I looked up only to realize I had started crying. Crud. I quickly wiped my eyes with the back of my hand and mumbled, "Sorry." It wasn't even me. My Mabel was upstairs asleep. But it was too easy to put myself in Mason's place.

"Don't be," Ford said, wrapping an arm around me to grab my shoulder.

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AN: Oh, wow, a ten day ended up on a Tuesday! Hi DA upload, we go up at the same time this time round. Oh well, Shameless Plug Time! If you like my stuff, be it Gravity Falls, Danny Phantom, Code Lyoko or Disney then check out my published book Harley Davis: Teenage Superhero! It's on Amazon and now Barnes and Nobel where you can buy either the e-book or the paperback.


	15. Chapter 15 Duh Duh Done

Chapter 15

Duh Duh Done

"Uh, morning?"

I opened my eyes only to find I had fallen asleep on the sofa on the front porch, Mason's journal still open on my lap. Beside me Ford was taking in the same thing with Melody standing in front of us dressed in a staff question mark shirt.

"Mmmm!" Ford said as he stretched his arms up. "Morning Melody." He dropped his arms as he stood up and reached for his lower back. "We must've fallen asleep reading last night."

I let out a yawn before I closed the journal and got to my feet. "What time is it?"

"A little before seven," Melody offered.

"We better get dressed then," Ford said. He opened the door for Melody and then looked at me. "Wake Mason. We'll get to work right after breakfast."

I nodded my head before walking into the house. As I made my way up the stairs. I thought back to what I remembered reading last night. To think of celebrating a birthday like how Mason had since 2007. I got to the last step and saw he was still curled up in his makeshift bed and got an idea. Instead of waking him up, I went to the room I shared with Mabel and quickly got dressed before going over to Mabel. "Hey, wake up."

"But I still wanna sleep," Mabel said, her eyes still closed.

"But I need you to wake Mason up," I said, still finding it weird to say my real name.

"Mm, well, that could be fun," Mabel said, opening her eyes. She threw off her blankets, getting the squall to call out as it woke in the movement. The creature jumped to the air, getting me to duck as it flew at me.

"Mabel!" I yelled, trying to keep an eye on the creature as it flew around my head.

"Squeaker!" Mabel ordered.

To my surprise, I heard a squall from the creature as it left the air space above my head. I slowly raised my head, dropping my arms to see the squall had landed in Mabel's arms.

"I didn't mean to surprise you," Mabel said in a quiet voice as she petted the creature.

"I can't wait till Ford's done with that thing," I mumbled, turning towards my side of the room to find my vest.

"Come on, Pikme, let's go wake up Mason!" Mabel said, quickly grabbing the cat off my bed. She got to the door and called out, "Waddles? You coming?"

The pig let out a squeal as his hooves clicked against the hard wood floor. I looked up to see my sister and her three animals going over to the unexpecting teen with a smile. I stood straight and watched as she dumped Pikme on the bundle, a high pitched startled scream coming just before Mabel put Waddles up on him and joined the pile. The scream turned into laughter as she started to tickle him.

My smile faltered as my mind went back to the world he was trying to get back to. This might be the last time he gets to hang out with Mabel, even if it wasn't _his_ Mabel.

It took a little while to get Mabel off and all her animals but practically no time for the three of us to get dressed and ready for breakfast. When we got to the kitchen we found Melody and Grunkle Stan working together to make breakfast. It probably did help, Stan being an older overweight man, to have help feeding the now eight people in this house. I looked at the small kitchen table, wondering how eight people would sit around it. Well, there was the other table just to the side of the living room.

"Anything I could help you with?" Mason asked, walking over to where Melody was making pancakes.

She looked over at him and then at me standing in the doorway, her mouth in an O.

"Soos didn't tell you, did he?" I asked.

"Uh, he did, I guess it just hadn't sunk in," Melody admitted, turning back to her cooking pancake to flip it. "Can you two bring in the other table and chairs? Mabel, set the table, please?"

I turned around and left the kitchen with Mason right behind me.

"You wanna do the table first?" Mason asked as we made our way to the oval table.

"Sure." I started pulling away the chairs, taking the two on my side and sliding them to the wall, as Mason did the same to the other two. We both reached for the table only for the front door to slam open.

"I found it!" McGucket's voice called out.

We froze with the table suspended between us and looked towards the door to see the old man standing there, looking as disheveled as normal, with a pad of yellow legal paper in his hands.

"Found what?" Ford's voice came from down the hall as the man was buckling his baldric. He appeared in the living room as we sat the table back down.

"Seven star eighty-one!"

I turned to Mason and smiled at the surprise on his face. Turning back to the two older men I said, "Well, what are we waiting on?"

Ford took the papers out of McGucket's hands as the old man's knee started going. He flipped through the notes and said, "I wanna double check it all first, than plugging it in will take a bit." Ford looked back at us and said, "Go eat breakfast, by the time you're done we should be ready."

I turned back to Mason to see a large smile on his face that I quickly mirrored.

"Come on, let's get this into the kitchen," Mason said, picking up his end once again. I picked up my end and followed him into the kitchen. We sat the table down by the door and made room by the table.

"What was that all about?" Stan asked, beating up batter with a whisk. I noticed his apron was covered in flour to get a snicker out of me.

"Fiddleford might've found my way home," Mason said, working quickly to get the table as lined up as we could. Working with an oval table and a rectangle one wasn't the easiest.

"That's great!" Mabel exclaimed, looking up from digging through the silverware drawer. She dropped what she had found back into the drawer and lunged to hug my counterpart.

I left to grab the chairs needed and found Soos walking back from the museum part of the house with pieces of the rabbit/bear, the ears coming off again. He looked oddly serious, but not towards the pieces in his hands as he took a seat in Stan's chair. Leaving the chair I was getting, I took a step towards the large man and asked, "You ok, Soos?"

"Huh?" He looked up with a start and took a second to find me, as if he hadn't noticed me in the first place. "Oh, hey dude." He looked back at the pieces in his hands, playing with the rabbit ear in one hand.

"Everything alright?" I asked, kind of getting worried for my friend.

"You think she'll say yes?"

My eyes opened wide. To make sure my mind was going down the same track I asked, "Yes to what?"

"To me," Soos said, looking over at me.

"I mean, you two've been dating for almost a year," I said, walking over to him.

"You think she'd like it if I took her out to ask her?"

"I don't know, man," I admitted. "Maybe you should ask Mabel? She knows more about this type of thing then me." I heard footsteps behind me and quickly turned only to see Mason grabbing the chairs I had meant to get for him. I turned back to Soos and said, "Though I think no matter how you ask, she'll say yes."

Before I knew what happened, Soos had stood up and wrapped me in a hug. "Thanks dude!"

Sure man but "Cant' breath!" I gasped out, my face smashed into his belly.

"Sorry," Soos said, releasing me.

I sucked in air, now remembering Ford's warning of if you're being suffocated, don't try to breath. Little too late now.

"Breakfast!" Stan's voice boomed as the man stuck his head out of the kitchen.

"You won't tell her, right?" Soos asked, stopping me from going into the kitchen.

I zipped my lips and threw away the key, knowing Wendy had explained to him what it meant.

"Thanks man, though you can unzip to eat," Soos said, walking passed me to go to the kitchen the piece of rabbit/bear still in hand.

I shook my head, following the large man into the kitchen. To my surprise, Abuelita had already made it in and had a seat closest to the stove. She was glaring at Stan as he sat down as at the oval addition. Soos took the seat next to Abuelita and an empty chair as I took the seat on the other side of the woman, next to Mabel. Mason sat on Mabel's other side, next to Stan. I glanced back at the old man who was glairing back. I leaned towards Mable and asked. "What happened?"

"The angel war has started," Mabel whispered back. "He found one in the museum."

"Oh."

"Here we go," Melody said as she placed the high plate of fresh pancakes into the center of the table next to three bottles of syrup. "Dig in, everybody!"

Mabel, Mason, and I all reached first for the spatula only for Mabel to grab it first.

"Ha!" Mabel exclaimed, pulling off fire pancakes from the stack.

"Soos, you'll never guess who I ran into on the trip down here!" Melody said as I got my five pancakes.

"Who?"

"That OurTuber, ShawnGreenEye."

"What! No way!" Soos exclaimed.

"Tell me you at least gotta picture!" Mabel exclaimed.

"You know it," Melody laughed. "I'll have to show you after I find my phone."

I doused my pancakes in syrup and started eating. The girls and Soos were awing over Shawn, not for the first time I'd heard about him. I took a glance at Mason to see him smile as he got his pancakes stack syruped.

"Dipper, where's Ford?" Stan asked.

"Working on the portal," I offered. "I'll take him whatever's leftover when we go down there." I froze, forkful of sloppy pancake halfway to my mouth, as the weird feeling of losing my balance came over me. I noticed everyone else freeze as the pancake pile in the center of the table was the first to start floating.

"Stanford!" Stan yelled out, his hands gripping the edge of the table as it stayed with him above the floor.

A strange, blood curtailing laugh came from outside, shattering the windows.

I quickly let go of my fork and ducked my head under my arms.

"Sue!" Mason exclaimed, panic in his voice.

I peaked up to see him swimming through the air, pushing off the table with his foot to send him out of the room.

I heard a few cries of "Mason" followed by my own name as I quickly pushed off to follow him.

A hand grabbed my foot, stopping me. I turned to see Stan had me, Mabel already floating in the air above me, ready to follow. I looked back at Stan and saw his face beyond angry.

"Grunkle Stan, I can't let him go on his own," I said, glancing towards the teen propelling himself slowly towards the door. I looked back at the old man and stare into his brown eyes.

The man let out a sigh before letting go of my ankle.

"Than-"

"You kids aren't going alone," Stan interrupted, pushing himself up out of the chair. "Go ahead, I'll be right behind you."

I gave him a smile only to feet a push from behind me, propelling me through the doorway. I glanced back to see Mabel working on flipping herself right side up from kicking me. I turned forward in time to grab ahold of the kitchen doorway and kept my momentum going. "Mason!" I hissed, the teen just getting to the front door.

He turned around, hand on the door knob only for gravity to return.

I fell straight on my face, getting a mouthful of shag carpet. I pushed myself up, spitting out the fuzz on my tongue, and pushed myself running as I heard the door open. Mason had been more prepared and had rushed out. I ran out of the door and off the porch only to stop behind Mason. In a dark sky was a green circle with thin arms and legs, holding a folded umbrella.

"Duh, duh, Done!" Mabel said, stopping beside me.

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	16. Chapter 16 Circles

Chapter 16

Circles

"Stay away from my grandchildren!" Ford's voice boomed. I glanced behind us to see Ford, standing with gun drawn and pointing up at the demon, Stan, standing similar with the butt of a shot gun resting in his shoulder, and McGucket, standing shocked behind the two.

Without a smart remark or quirt, the three turned gray, getting my attention back up to the demon floating in the darker than night sky, she being the only light.

"There's my little Dipper," Sue said, her voice echoing like how Bill's would. I looked around and noticed we were the only things left in color, like if we were in the dreamscape. I looked back up at her as she continued. "She had some weird nicknames for you, didn't she? Dip-Dip, Bro-Bro? So stupid-"

"Hey!" Mabel called out but Sue ignored her.

"But it cracks me up!" She let out a laugh as she opened her umbrella and rested it on what could be called a shoulder.

"What do you want, Sue?" Mason demanded, his hands in fists as he took a step forward.

I looked up at the floating green circle and noticed a triangle hanging under her eye. I squinted only to realize it was Bill! The Bill from Mason's dimension. Ford's words from last night appeared in my mind, scaring me more than seeing Sue.

"What do you mean, what do I what?" Sue asked, her one yellow eye staring down at us. "I'm just coming as a messenger. You took too long to get home. This is my next dimension, now you'll get to watch this one's demise as well."

"What!" I turned to look at Mason, a tear running down his cheek. "Yo-You LIER!"

"Why else couldn't you find it?" Sue looked at me with a smile in her eye. "I know you've been looking for it. What else would have those two morons been doing with the portal again?"

At their mention, I glanced behind us only to realize something. She could control who was in her mindscape! I looked back up at Sue, the demon twirling her umbrella over her head. "We will defeat you," I said, praying to whomever would listen she couldn't hear my heart about to break out of my chest. "You stop here."

"Oh, do I?" Sue asked. She stopped twirling her umbrella and closed it. She floated down to me, closing her eye, until she floated eyelevel with me. Her eye sprung open red as hell, as she yelled, "THAN YOU WILL WATCH EVERYONE AROUND YOU DIE JUST AS YOU HAVE DONE COUNTLESS TIMES BEFORE!"

A loud boom sounded, forcing me to cover my ears and bend down as it blasted my eardrums. As the sound faded away, I carefully uncovered my ears and looked up. The world was back to color, the sounds of nature coming back to me only to realize behind me the three men were saying something to us. I turned around only for Ford to grip my shoulders and look me in the eye.

"Dipper! Are you ok?" Ford asked, his voice taking some time to register in my brain. Beside me similar words were being said to Mabel and Mason as I realized everyone had come out of the Mystery Shack. Stan and Melody were at Mabel and Soos with McGucket were helping Mason. Abuelita was standing on the porch, worry on her face. "Dipper!" Ford exclaimed, getting me to look up at him again.

"Yeah?" I asked. Something wasn't right. My brain started to bang inside my skull, forcing me to take off my hat and close my eyes.

"Dipper?" Ford asked, kneeling to be eyelevel with me.

I struggled to keep my eyes working. I could hear Stan yelling something and a phone flipping open. For said something else when I heard my hat hit the ground. Why did I hear that? It was still… Oh. Nothing is in my hand.

Everything went dark. I knew time had passed but as for what happened during, I have no idea. When I opened my eyes next I saw I had made it to Ford's study. I sat straight and rubbed my forehead. Whatever happened, I did not want to go through it again.

"Dipper!" Ford's voice said in a hushed whisper.

I looked up, dropping my hand to my lap and noticed I shared the sofa with Mabel and Mason, both passed out like I had been.

Ford rolled on his desk chair over to me and asked, "How do you feel?"

"Weird?" I offered, unsure myself. My head still hurt but not about to break out of my head bad.

"Here, drink this," Ford handed me a glass of orange juice with a straw.

At the sight of the drink I realized I was thirsty. I grabbed the glass out of his hands and, after fumbling embarrassingly with the straw, I gulped down as much as I could at once. It was a little warm, making me wonder how long I'd been out. I glanced up at the analog clock on the wall only for my eyes to bug out and choke on my drink.

"Take it easy," Ford said, his eyes widening.

Once I could breathe I gasped out, "It's already five?!"

"Any longer and I was about to call the doctor," Ford admitted, casting a glance at those sharing the sofa. I went back to sucking at my orange juice as he asked, "What happened?"

I swallowed and admitted, "I don't know. She made sure only we were in the dreamscape with her though."

"But why use the dreamscape when she already has a physical form?" Ford asked aloud. "What did she tell you?"

"That she had destroyed Mason's dimension." I looked down at my drink, noticing my juice was almost gone. It seemed like a crummy dimension but still. It was his home. To find out you were too late to come home and save it, I looked over to the teen, his head tilted back and resting on the back of the sofa.

"That would explain what we found," Ford mumbled. I looked back to him as he continued. "McGucket had found Seven Star Eighty-One last night on his computer but when we put it into the portal this morning there was nothing there."

"There has to be," Mason mumbled, slowly sitting up.

Ford reached over to the coffee table just behind him and picket up another glass of orange juice, letting me see a third next to it. Ford handed it to Mason and said, "McGucket's checking. I'm sorry."

Mason took a sip and looked over at me. He glanced to his other side, towards Mabel, whose head rested on the armrest.

"You said the journal had a way to defeat Sue," I said, getting Mason to turn his eyes back on me. "What do we need to do?"

"It'd take too long to fix the gun, Fiddleford was still working on that last I saw…" his voice fell as he looked back down at his drink. He took a sip and sat with the straw hanging from his lips.

"There's gotta be a different way, I mean, we didn't defeat Bill in the normal way," I offered.

"She could use some glitter."

A smile came over my face at Mabel's voice. She was awake. Ford quickly turned and grabbed the last glass, handing it to her as she sat up.

"How you doing?" Ford asked.

"Bleck," Mabel said, sucking down her drink.

I took the last sip of my orange juice and rested the glass on my leg.

"I remember Stanford had looked into other ways back in the nineties," Mason said. "Most of that was while he was in jail but I think he put notes of it in the journal."

Ford pushed himself back to his desk and picked up the soft leather book. He rolled back to us as he opened it and flipped past the first few pages. He skimmed a few pages, slowly flipping as he tried to find what he was looking for. "You said nineties?" Ford checked.

"It should be dated ninety-six," Mason informed.

Ford flipped one last page before stopping. "As I sat in prison I did what research I could," Ford read aloud, "and between myself and an old professor I could meet up with during lunch, we discovered a back-up way of defeating Sue. If the gun doesn't work, draw the Eye of Eksusha on the ground and on each point light a candle sitting on a slab of schrol or black tourmaline. Sue has to stand in the center of the eye long enough for someone to say," For stopped reading to not say the spell aloud. He looked up at Mason, who was now the only with orange juice left, and asked, "What's the Eye of Eksusha?"

"He should have written it in UV ink," Mason said before finishing his drink.

Ford rolled back to his desk and grabbed a black flash light, clicking it on to shine the purple light on the page. His eyebrows rose in surprise at what he saw. He took a movement, as if studying what he saw in silence, before clicking off the flash light. He looked back at Mason and asked, "Now where might we find this black tourmaline?"

"I've only run into it in a few dimensions," Mason admitted. "Mine seemed to be where it was easiest, but…" he took a moment before finishing. "There's one we went to yesterday that'll have it."

"Which one?" I asked, curious which dimension we'd be going back to.

"Thirty T one," Mason offered.

I tilted my head, not recognizing the name.

"It was one that I went through," Mason explained. "It's not a dimension that looks like this one."

Than that must've been the third one, Mason's first yesterday. I remember him coming back out of breath, holding himself. It didn't look like fun to go to a dimension unlike here.

"Then as soon as you three are ready, we'll get going," Ford looked towards Mabel and asked, "If you want, that is."

"Are you kidding me? Who wouldn't wanna go to another dimension?" Mabel asked, quickly jumping up to her feet only to careen straight to her face on the hardwood floor.

"Mabel!" I exclaimed, surprised to see her balance so far off.

"I'm good," Mabel said, giving us a thumbs up from where she laid.

Ford got up and grabbed her under her arms to help her back to her feet. "I said when you were ready," Ford said, amusement obvious in his voice as he sat her back on the sofa. His smile disappeared as he said, "Sue really did a number on you."

My mind went back to this morning, only happening a few minutes ago for us, and I felt my heart go faster. "Where'd Sue go?"

"Stanley took Soos, Melody, and Wendy to try and find her," Ford admitted. "They're also warning the townsfolk. Hopefully she won't be able to leave the town like Bill couldn't."

Mason's head jerked up at what Ford said, turning my attention to him. "What do you mean?"

"Here there's a natural magnetism that attracts weirdness to Gravity Falls," Ford explained. "It's gotten so strong that it now forms a barrier that prevents things it deems as _too weird_ from leaving. I'm not certain on how it got that strong, what caused it in the first place, or even what it determines as _too weird_ , but I do know it's still working."

"That's why our Weirdmageddon wasn't worldwide," I offered.

6-15-18-4, 2-5 3-1-18-5-6-21-12. 20-8-5 5-25-5 9-14 15-20-8-5-18 4-9-13-5-14-19-9-15-14-19 9-19 20-15 19-21-13-13-15-14 4-5-13-15-14-19. 9-6 25-15-21'18-5 20-15-15 3-12-15-19-5 20-15 1 18-9-6-20, 25-15-21 13-9-7-8-20 5-14-4 21-16 23-9-20-8 20-8-5 4-5-13-15-14 5-11-19-21-19-8-1.

AN: OK, so I've got some bad news… I started working on Harley's second book, actually almost done with the second book ^^, but that means I took a break from writing this. I'm stuck in chapter 23. At least the chapter I'm working on now won't come out until May. Hopefully by then I'll be back and working on it.


	17. Chapter 17 Recovery

Chapter 17

Recovery

I carefully made my way back upstairs, keeping my hand on the wall as I felt my head swim. Why were we brought downstairs? Oh, right. The only large sofa had been moved down to Ford's study. I stopped as the world started to turn and braced my hand against the other wall, hoping to catch myself. Why was I so dizzy? Maybe I should've taken Ford's offer to help.

Finally the world stopped moving so I could continue walking up the steps. This stair case never seemed so long. Whatever Sue did to us really did a number to me. Bill didn't even leave me this wiped. I took the last step and leaned against the back of the snack machine. The cold felt nice against my forehead only to get me to realize I wasn't wearing my hat. A part of me remembered taking it off but what happened to it after… I had no idea.

After a moment of letting the cold metal rest against my face, my bladder reminded me of the reason I was working my way up here in the first place. I took a deep breath and pushed myself away from the machine. I found the peep hole and looked through, finding the gift shop empty. Oh right, everyone was out looking for Sue. I pushed my way out, letting the snack machine close itself as I slowly turned around to go through the door to the house. I made my way to the bathroom and sat down, not trusting my balance.

I rested my head on my hands, stabbing my knees with my elbows. Everything that had happened in the past week flooded my thoughts. We defeated Bill, could we defeat a being even more powerful then him? And what would happen to Mason now that he didn't have a home? Would Mom and Dad mind if we became triplets? What about Mason's Bill? Sue still had him and according to something I had found in the journal in UV ink, he wasn't dead. Could he use what was left in mine and Ford's brains to come back?

I let out a sign and finished my business in the bathroom. I was only fourteen and now facing the second chance to save the world from a demon. I left the room and headed back to the gift shop only to stop at seeing Abuelita caring a tray of food.

She froze, surprised at seeing me. Recovering she sat the tray on the doily covered T-Rex skull and took the few steps to bridge the gap, embracing me in a hug. "Oh, mi hijo!"

Well, I could breath. I let her hug me until she let go.

"How are you?" She asked, grabbing my chin to look me over.

"I'm fine, Abuelita," I said as she let go. My eyes found the tray of food and admitted, "Though I am hungry."

"I thought you be," Abuelita briskly nodded her head. She turned back and grabbed the food.

I waited for her to offer it to me, knowing she didn't like going down stairs, only for her to wait on me to move. I led her around the corner of the gift shop and into the corridor behind the snack machine, going down the steps slower than I would normally. I punched in the code for the elevator and we headed down to the second floor of the basement.

The elevator stopped, the inertia messing with my balance, forcing me to lean against the wall.

"Dipper?" Abuelita asked, the door opening.

"I'm fine," I threw off, pushing myself off the wall. I took a second to keep up right before walking in to see Mason and Mabel alone on the sofa.

"And he had how many in this club?" Mason asked, laughter in his voice.

My stomach dropped, knowing what club Mable was talking about.

"Three guys and a girl."

"Mabel!" I whined, walking over to my seat on the sofa. "You said you wouldn't tell anyone."

"He is you," Mabel offered.

"Sorry, I did ask," Mason tried as Abuelita sat the tray on the coffee table.

"I was five," I tried to defend, taking a glass of water from what Abuelita had brought.

"Eat up, you three need it after this morning," Abuelita offered.

I took a sandwich off the pile and bit into it, a part of me not even caring what was in it. Finding turkey I sat back and ate in silence as Mabel and Mason did the same.

"Anything you need?" Abuelita asked.

"No, thank you," Mason offered.

"Thank you Abuelita," I said with Mabel echoing my voice.

The old woman gave us a smile before leaving back to the elevator. At least she didn't need any codes to go up.

I waited till the elevator's doors closed to ask, "So where'd Great Uncle Ford go?"

"He went to see about getting the portal to Thirty T One set up," Mason said.

"Anything we should know about that dimension?" I asked, my mind playing through different ideas of what it could look like.

"Ooo, do they have uni-kitties?" Mabel asked.

"I don't think they do, I never ran into one at least," Mabel said, his eyebrows squished down in thought. "Though the trip there isn't gonna be fun. Oh, and I'll have to give you and Ford a fairy stone," Mason said, looking at Mabel as he added. "We'll need to buy the rocks from their Mystery Shack."

-.-.-.-

"Aw, they're so cute!" Mabel said, looking at the fairy stone cupped in her hand.

"Keep it in your pocket," Ford ordered, putting his own stone in his pants pocket.

Mabel did as ordered as McGucket hit the switch to turn on the portal.

I pushed the brim of my hat up, looking over at the portal as it sparked before coming to life.

"You've got about twenty minutes," McGucket said. "You should be just outside the shack, in the parking lot."

"Thanks, McGucket," Ford said before leading us into the portal room. He looked towards Mason and asked, "Do you want to lead the way? You _have_ been here before."

"Ok," Mason nodded his head.

I stopped with Ford and Mabel just beyond the caution tape on the floor and watched Mason walk up the steps and walk through the portal.

"Mabel, you go next," Ford said.

"Ok Grunkle Ford!" Mabel said, swiftly walking up to the portal.

"And remember, keep walking, "Ford reminded just as my sister disappeared.

Ford looked down at me and I took a deep breath. I walked up the stairs and through the portal, expecting the membrane-like feel only for everything to feel like it was on fire. I kept walking, hoping the sooner I was out the better I'd feel only to let out a scream in the space in between dimensions. I took my final step out of the portal and fell to my knees, holding my stomach as I dry heaved. It felt like I needed to throw up but nothing would come up. A moment passed as I tried to catch my breath before I opened my eyes only to stare in surprise at the detail in the pine straw covering the forest floor below me.

"You ok?" Mason asked as I heard footsteps come closer to me.

I looked over at his shoes only to freeze. Everything I saw had too many lines, too many colors, too many details. It was the weirdness bubble all over again.

"Dipper?" Mabel asked after I didn't respond.

"I'm good," I said, pushing myself up. I closed my eyes as I stood only to open them and stare at the two.

Footsteps behind me got me to turn around only to see Ford step out of the portal. "How's everybody?"

"We're good!" Mabel said, giving us a big smile showing off her braces.

"Ok, the shack should be this way," Ford said, leading us through the woods.

I couldn't keep my eyes focused on any one thing. Between the brilliant colors of the sun through the pine trees, the many colors on just the bark of the trees we passed, to a squirrel as it rushed up a tree.

"Dipper, Mason, look at that butterfly!" Mabel called out, pointing to a multi colored bug flying passed us.

Mason smiled as I watched the bug. "Pretty, isn't it?" he asked.

"How can there be so many colors in one object?" I asked, wanting to understand it all.

"Light is different in this dimension," Ford explained, dropping back so we walked next to each other. "Back home light only bends in about a thousand colors, making everyday objects to humans look simple. But here there's millions of colors."

"Millions?" Mabel echoed. "Just think of what I could do with so many colors."

"You'd probably put them in sweaters," Mason joked, pointing to the green and pink animal crossing sweater she wore today.

"Hey, there's the shack!" I said, seeing the wood cabin through the trees. We broke through the tree line and found ourselves in the gravel parking lot to the side of the Mystery Shack. I looked up and, besides the extra detail, it looked just like home. The S even seemed to not stay up, already making its way down the slope of the roof.

"Anything we need to know before we go inside?" Ford asked, looking towards Mason.

"It shouldn't be too different from your home," Mason offered. "At least, as far as I could tell yesterday."

I held open the door to the gift shop and waited for the three to go inside before following them in. We were the only ones, beside a red head behind the counter reading a magazine. I almost didn't see her, my brain not used to the details in simple objects.

"Oh my! Is that Wendy!?" Mabel asked, going over to the counter as the girl lowered her magazine.

"Mabel? Dipper? Didn't I just see you two go inside?" Wendy asked only to look behind us at Ford and Mason going through the shack's gift shop.

"Don't freak, we just need some rock and we'll be gone," I offered, not used to how small this dimension's eyes were only to watch as Wendy's grew to normal size.

"Mr. Pines," Wendy said, getting me to turn as I heard someone walk in from the house.

Frozen in the doorway was Stan and another Ford. Stan took less time before he stepped into the gift shop and said, "As long as they pay, I don't care."

30T1 Ford turned to look behind himself before looking back at us and asking, "Where are you… How did you?"

"Dimension forty-six apostrophe backslash," Ford answered as he carried an arm load of glossy black stones to the counter. He unloaded them and started to count only to go back and grab a few more to add to the pile in front of Wendy.

"You came dimensions for stones?" Wendy asked, picking up one of the slab stones as her example.

"They don't exist in our dimension," Mason offered.

"Who are you?" Stan asked, eyeing the teen.

"Uh, Dipper from Seven Star Eighty-One."

"So these are rare stones for you," Stan said.

"Stanley, they're still family," 30T1 Ford reprimanded, walking over to stand beside his brother and the counter.

"So," Stan said. He looked at Ford and said, "Ten bucks a piece."

"I thought family meant something to you," Ford said, pulling out his wallet as Wendy counted out twenty rocks.

"My own dimension's family, sure," Stan said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Wendy, keep them at a buck," 30T1 Ford ordered. Stan opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by, "It's still my house."

Ford handed Wendy a twenty with a smile. She looked down at the bill in hand only to drop her own smile and say, "Doesn't matter, I can't take this."

I looked at the bill in her hand, it looking like a twenty dollar bill always has, only for me to realize it didn't change like we did.

"Can I see that?" 30T1 Ford asked, taking the bill from Wendy. He looked it over, flipping it over as he added, "Fasinating."

Stan leaned to look it over and said, "Mabel can make one better than this."

"Sorry, I didn't put into account my money wouldn't change on the way here," Ford admitted. "Is there any way we could work for them?"

"We work at our Mystery Shack, so it shouldn't be too different," Mabel offered.

"Well I could use a new exhibit," Stan said, thinking aloud.

"No need, I'll buy this twenty off of you," 30T1 Ford said, sitting the twenty on the counter. He pulled his wallet out of his pants pocket and pulled out a twenty, handing it to his counterpart.

I looked at the twenty now in Ford's hands, surprised to see small blue and red threads in the paper. He handed the bill to Wendy, who checked us out.

"Ok you three, pull your pockets," Ford ordered, putting his wallet away.

I grabbed six and put them in my pants pockets as Mable and Mason grabbed theirs.

"Wait, before you go could I get a picture?" Wendy asked, pulling out her phone and holding it up to show us. "Dipper's not going to believe he missed _this_."

"Uh, sure," I shrugged as Mabel yelled out "Yes!"

Wendy turned around and held the phone so she could get us five in the picture. The flash went off, leaving a spot in my eyes. She turned around and looked at the picture with a smile. "Thanks."

"See you," Mabel said as we walked out of the gift shop.

It felt weird to be leaving Stan and Wendy for good, but my Stan and Wendy were home. This wasn't my Mystery Shack.

"Why did you want so many rocks?" Mabel asked as we walked through the gravel parking lot.

I felt someone watching us and turned to look over my shoulder only to see my face in the second floor window staring down. I knew we didn't have time to stop so I waved, hoping he could see my smile, before turning back to watch where I was going.

"Well we need eight for Sue, eight just in case, and the rest to study," Ford explained.

"I hope this works," Mason mumbled as we found the portal floating just a step in the air.

"It will," I promised, looking at Mason.

-.-.-.-

Mason and I shared the chair of the old recliner with Mabel sitting on the back and her legs between us as we watched Why You Ackin' So Cray-Cray?

"Girl, you ain't even eatin' real food!" the lady I've long forgotten her name exclaimed after the larger woman's story played out.

I looked over at Mason, seeing he was as bored as I was, but a quick glance up at Mabel kept me from saying a thing.

"You eat mattress foam, whayt!?" Mabel exclaimed to the woman on TV.

I turned back to watching the TV, resting my head on my fist propped up by the armrest on my side. It felt weird to be acting as if nothing was going on. Ford was in his study, making sure he understood what all was needed to do to capture Sue, and McGucket was down in the portal control room trying to find Seven Star Eighty-One still. We hadn't heard anything about Wendy, Stan, and them but it was close to seven so they should be coming-

"These people are idiots!" Wendy's voice exclaimed as the back door slammed open.

We turned our heads to see the four walking into the shack. Melody looked exhausted, walking passed us to the chair at the table. Soos followed close behind, taking the seat across from her.

"Move," Stan ordered, sounded defeated as he stood in front of us.

"I'm guessing no luck?" Mason asked as we jumped out of his chair.

Stan lowered himself into the old recliner with a sigh.

"No. Mayor Tyler wanted to stick to his "never mind all that" law and when we went out to tell the people, Blubs almost arrested us!" Wendy exclaimed, stopping next to us.

"They won't be able to hide it once she starts," Mason said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I give up," Stan said, changing the channel on the TV. "Those hats wanna be ruled by a demon again, they can have her. Scoot to the side, I can't see."

The four of us moved closer to Soos and Melody as the girl asked, "How are you three?"

"Better than you look," Mabel said, stepping over to the woman to give her a hug.

"Thanks," Melody said, hugging Mabel back. The two let go and Melody continued. "I think a few people believed us. Wendy's father said he would help anyone at Greasy's that wanted to learn apocalypse survival."

"So no sign of Sue?" I asked.

"Not since this morning," Melody offered.

"I wish I knew what she was planning," I mumbled.

"I can tell you that," Mason said, dropping his arms. "To kill us and watch the dimension destroy. It's just how she'll start about it."

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AN: Sorry it's been so long since I've been able to post. I don't know if anyone else has had this problem but Windows did an update that fried my poor motherboard (thankfully not deep fried or I would have to get a new one, but pan fried). I had to get someone out to my house and fix it, and that hurts my pride a bit. I like computers so I like to be able to fix mine without help… but sadly this was beyond my knowledge.


	18. Chapter 18 Freeze

Chapter 18

Freeze

I rolled over in bed, trying to get conferrable only to open my eyes. I felt exhausted, my eyes hurt, and I wanted to get to sleep. Sleep just didn't want to come to me. I looked up, through the window, and saw the moon just waxing. Letting out a sigh, I put my hands behind my head and thought about going outside. Maybe the night air would help me get to sleep.

"So you are awake," Sue's voice said, freezing me.

I slowly looked back to the room Mabel and I shared and saw the green circle that was Sue floating just at the foot of my bed. I quickly sat up, pulling my legs closer to myself.

"Don't act so surprised, you _had_ to be expecting me," Sue said, her right hand playing with the petrified Bill under her eye. She looked down at it and back to me, saying, "You know him, don't you? This dimension had little William here as well."

My mind tried to reach out to the piece of Bill in my brain, as if a part of me wanted to contact him, only to stop it. I don't know how, but she was influencing me to do things I didn't want to. "How are you doing that?" I asked, confused. To do anything more than convince through words, Bill had to make a deal.

"Doing what?" Sue asked as once again I felt the throb in my brain.

My hands jumped to my temples, the pain surprising me. "That!" I exclaimed.

"Oh, that?' Sue asked, her hand freezing around Bill's frozen form. "You and that man hold a piece of him, don't you?" She seemed to teleport in front of me, her eye red as she exclaimed, "That's a problem, now isn't it?!"

I leaned back in bed, surprised by her sudden movement, only to fall back on my pillow.

"Bill has been a thorn in my side for far too long! He will NOT come back now," Sue said, leaning ever so closer to me.

"Hey, I don't want him back either," I said, pushing myself back up to force her to float a bit away from me.

"Yes. I have noticed you only just dealt with him in the last year," Sue said, floating back so she was beside my bed. "Tell me, why can't I leave this town?"

The subject change was so sudden I couldn't think of a response.

"I know you know about it, that Bill was forced to keep his apocalypse to just this tiny back woods town," Sue said.

I didn't know what to say that wouldn't help her. My eyes flashed over to Mabel, wondering how she was sleeping through this.

"Does she know?" Sue asked, getting me to quickly look back at the demon.

"No!" I exclaimed, worried she might do something to my sister. Sue looked at me as I said, "No, she doesn't." I had to say something to prevent her from going after Mabel. "It has something to do with how weirdness is drawn here."

An eyebrow raised above her eye as she echoed, "The weirdness draw? Yes, I can feel it."

As she said it, I realized I could feel the natural curve of something far above me and the shack. I looked up, confused, only for the feeling to disappear.

"So you can feel it, once pushed," Sue said. Before I knew what she had done, I found she had grabbed my arm and pulled me forward.

"Hey!" I exclaimed, scared as she pulled me up into the air. I reached out with my left hand and tried to grab her only for my hand to travel through her as if through air.

Sue let out a laugh, "And to think, you helped in defeating Bill." She leaned closer to me, so that we were eye to eye, and whispered, "How would you like to join your great uncle?"

Ford! "What have you done to him?!" I ordered, kicking at the demon only for my feet to still go through her form.

"Let's go and see him," Sue said, reaching out with the hand not holding me. A yellow portal appeared in the center of the room just large enough for us to fly through.

She drug me through the portal, not letting my feet touch the ground. I glanced back, the last look at my bed as the portal closed. I looked around, already determining I couldn't touch her, and saw us fly through a spans of yellow swirling energy. "Where are you taking me?" I asked, reaching up to try and help my right wrist break free of her grip only for the same result of the rest of her. No matter where, I couldn't seem to touch her.

"Like I said, to where that man is," Sue said. In front of us was opening a portal, blue light streaming through. We flew though, letting me see four chambers in a cave. The bunker! I looked around at the cryo-chambers, panic filling me. The one she had us popped us out next to showed me Ford's angered face, fist frozen against the glass.

"Ford!" I exclaimed, shocked to see she had already captured him. I looked up at her and yelled, "Let us go!"

She let out a laugh as she flew us pass the chamber holding the shape shifter, now back to his own bug-like form. The next chamber was empty and closed.

I thought I might be able to fight when she threw me in but instead of opening the door she fazed through the door and drug me inside. I cringed at the feeling of going through solid metal and insolation. I dropped to the ground, now free of her grip, and looked around. I stood up as I faced the glass, pushing my hands against the glass, looking for her.

"Good bye, Mason Pines," Sue's voice said through a speaker above me. I looked up, the last thing I saw being smoke raining down on me.

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	19. Chapter 19 Missing

Chapter 19

Missing

"Mabel! Mabel!"

I let out a sound, rolling over so that the blanket wrapped around my shoulders. I felt, with my eyes still closed, and found Squeaker next to me and pulled him close to hug him.

"Mabel, wake up!"

"Dipper," I whined, determining my bro-bro was going to be a stick in the mud-er- attic. I turned back over and opened my eyes only to see Mason standing there, reaching out with his hands. "Mason?" I asked, surprised to see him standing at my bedside in only what he slept in. Not a sight to wake up to.

"Have you seen Dipper?" Mason asked. "I mean, last night. Did he say he was going somewhere?"

"No," I drug out, sitting up. Avoiding my sleeping pig, aww, he looked so cute wrapped up with only his curly tail visible, I swung my feet off the bed and looked over to Dipper's bed. The blankets were pushed down to the foot, but looked normal for his bed. "You sure he didn't just go to the bathroom?"

"I looked," Mason said, starting to pace the space between beds. "I've checked the shack, the museum, outside, even a bit out in the woods." He stopped and looked towards me, not even taking a breath as he continued. "That's when I thought you might've known something. I know it's early-" I hadn't even looked at the clock," and I didn't wanna wake you but I started getting worried."

I stood up and grabbed his shoulders, inner cringe for how sweaty he felt, ugh. "Bro-bro," I said, stopping his rambling. "Take a breath."

Mason forced his mouth shut and breathed deeply though his nose.

I waited for him to exhale before saying, "Have you asked Grunkle Ford?"

"He was asleep," Mason said.

"Well let's go wake him up," I said, letting go of him. I wiped my hands against my night shirt and led him out of the room. We walked down the stairs and down to hall to Ford's old study. I carefully pushed open the door, not wanting to wake up Stan as well, and looked in. The study had been transformed into a bedroom with two beds, one of each side of the room. Stan snored loudly from the left bed as we walked into the room. We walked over to Ford's side of the room, the man's bed empty.

"This can't be good," Mason mumbled, placing a hand on the bed.

I could feel panic start rising up in my stomach. If both Ford and Dipper were missing, something must be going on. I turned around and rushed over to Stan's bed. "Grunkle Stan, wake up," I said, pushing on the man's shoulder.

"Huh?" Stan asked, his voice muffled by the blanket. He turned over and looked up at me. "Mabel, sweaty? What's wrong?"

"Dipper and Grunkle Ford are gone," I admitted.

Stan looked over at the bed behind me, his brows increased as he squinted. "He could be in the bathroom."

"Both of them?" Mason asked, getting me to glance past the feet of Stan's bed to see their bathroom open and dark.

Stan pushed himself up and reached for his glasses on the night table. "Did they say anything to you two?"

I looked over at Mason to see him shake his head. I turned back to Stan and said, "No."

Stan let out a sigh and pushed the blankets off his legs. I stepped back so he could get up. "What time is it?" Stan asked, letting out a yawn.

"Five forty," Mason said as we walked out of the room.

"Kid, can't you do anything at a reasonable time of day?" Stan asked, rubbing his eyes under his glasses.

"I'm used to getting up at five," Mason admitted with a smile.

"You are cray-cray," I said, glancing over at him.

He turned his smile towards me before the smile dropped. He looked up at Stan and asked, "What are we going to do?"

Stan led us into the gift shop and punched in the code to the snack machine. "We'll see if anything down here might tell us where they went. It's probably some late night/early morning monster hunt, knowing those two."

We followed him down the steps and into the elevator, going down to Ford's study. Nothing looked changed from yesterday, the sofa was still against the wall, taken down here from the old study upstairs. I noticed Mason going over to the wall holding something Dipper might have created as I walked with Stan to Ford's desk and looked it over. Stan picked up the journal from Mason's dimension and flipped through it. Back to the desk, it looked like any normal nerd's desk. A pile of pens sat on the edge, ready to be pushed off. A pile of books sat against the wall, the bindings reading off things like Cryptids and Their Habitats and Cryptology. A book on the top of the pile didn't have a name, getting my attention. I picked it up and looked it over, it being a hard back leather book. I flipped it open only to find it looked like the journal Dipper carried last summer.

"That's Ford's journal," Stan said. I looked up and saw his face pulled down like it was when he was worried. Stan closed the journal in his hand and reached down to take the one in my hands.

My stomach dropped as I realized what that could mean. Ford took that journal with him everywhere, like Dipper did with his own. If Ford didn't have it on him, something must have happened to force him to leave it here.

"Ford, you idiot!" Stan exclaimed.

"Do you know where they are?" Mason asked, coming over to us.

"No, but Bill might be behind it," Stan said, flipping a page.

"Bill!?" I exclaimed.

"But I thought you defeated him," Mason said,

"After extensive research I have found within my brain is a malformity. It gives off the same readings as Bill did," Stan read. "It seems to be like Bill's footprint. If one knew what to look for, they could reanimate him.

"I've warned Dipper and found there could possibly be two other who made a deal with him. Any one of us could be used to bring him back."

"Like one demon wasn't enough for this town," I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest.

"But they won't go and _willingly_ revive him, right?" Mason asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Stan said, closing the journal. He looked down at us and ordered, "Go get dressed. I hate to close the shack again, and on the weekend too!" Stan sat the journal on the desk as he grabbed the bridge of his nose. "We'll get looking for them as soon as everyone's awake."

Yikgv'f uztq av uoe cfvmecqij, Kbnt uv zaa oujmjk iaj gvvwzfnuzl, svq Smjdw qa nqz faouz epajb. Nz xmskb gnqaw lpekq ewjma'z wqvficvql. Xgzq yxmwha vt m ljq-nvz xwfy aykqdw kpvxf ifv ajkmbk svq Juxhwz frqmhk qa nua fgzzgx zwv auodb sfl puynq uwgzav kzweze.


	20. Chapter 20 The Hunt

Chapter 20

The Hunt

Mason and I walked through the streets of Gravity Falls, asking if anyone had seen Ford or Dipper. After last summer, most of the small town knew who both were but no one had seen either. Today I had put on my shooting star sweater, saving the new one I had made for a happier day. The big dipper was supposed to point to the North Star, right? Maybe it'll bring us some luck.

"You think anybody at the diner might've seen them?" I asked, noticing we were close to it.

"Wendy was going to start there," Mason said, getting me to remember hearing something like that. "She was gonna get her friends and comb the forest."

"Right." I looked around as we walked, hoping to see another person to ask. Not many people were out so early on a Sunday. "You don't' think Sue took them, do you?" I asked.

"She got rid of Bill back home," Mason said. "If anything, she would wanna make sure he _didn't_ come back."

"Hey, what's this I hear about Dipper missing?" a girl's voice asked from behind us. I turned around and smiled in surprise at seeing Pacifica with her hands on her hips as she stopped a pace away from us. She pointed a finger at Mason and added, "And who are you?"

"Let's keep moving, you can fill _her_ in as we go," Mason ordered, shoving his hands in his pockets as he turned to continue down the sidewalk.

I fell a pace behind Mason as Pacifica and I followed. I filled her in, starting with our first day back in Gravity Falls and ending with waking up this morning.

"Another dimension? But I thought that was all just sci-fi junk," Pacifica said, looking at the back of Mason's head.

"Bill came from another dimension," I reminded.

"Oh." Pacifica looked back at me and asked, "So what can I, uh, do?"

"Well there's gotta be a better way of looking for them," I said, looking up at town hall across the street to see it was now eight. "We've been asking around all morning but no one saw them."

"Well, do they have cellphones?"

I pulled out the one we had to share and said, "I've got it."

"Any other electricals?" Pacifica asked, putting a finger to her chin in thought as I shook my head. "You could hire-er- _find_ a blood hound. Maybe the dog might be able to sniff where they went."

"McGucket did that with one of his inventions right after we told him what happened," Mason offered. "Their scent disappeared about a step away from their beds."

"Well, is there a place someone might hide them?" Pacifica asked. "Basement, cave- ugh."

"Stan's going through a few of the caves with Soos and Melody," Mason said.

"The bunker!" I exclaimed, remembering the underground structure. Mason and Pacifica both looked at me, confused. "Ford and McGucket built it back years ago. It's underground and no one knows about it."

"Let's go check it out," Pacifica said, motioning for me to lead the way.

"It's this way!" I said, leading the two down the road and towards the diner. If I remembered right, the tree should be just a little ways past the shack. We made it there in no time and I slowed down to a walk as I wrapped my knuckles against a tree. Wood. I did the same to the next tree, sure it was around here only to find another wooden one. I knocked on a couple more before I called out, "Blarg!"

"What are you looking for, maybe we can help," Mason said, leaning against a tree as the two looked at me.

"The tree's not a proper tree," I said, knocking on another trunk only to find more wood.

I heard the sound of hallow metal and turned to see the first one Pacifica had tried turned out to be it. "You found it!" I exclaimed.

"Ok, so how do we get in?" Mason asked, looking the tree up and down.

"You see that branch all on its own up there," I said as I started looking for a rock. "We need to hit it." I found one about palm sized and picket it up. "This should do." I stepped back and looked up, calling out, "Look out!" before throwing it up. The rock sailed through the air and came within a foot of the branch, just too low. "Crud." I chased after the rock as it landed in a bush on the other side to try again. This time the rock made contact, hitting the branch upwards.

"You got it!" Pacifica cheered.

I walked back over to the two as the ground around the tree started to move down. I stepped forward and looked down as the steps pushed out of the dirt. A door slid open out of the bark on the tree down below us as all the machinery stopped. "Come on," I said, leading the way down the spiral set of stairs. I hope they weren't down here but maybe a clue might be. And we could cross this place off the list. I walked through the door, the living area the same as I remembered it from last time.

"2050? Is all of this rations?" Mason asked, looking up to the ceiling tall bookshelf full of dated boxes.

"I think it was Ford and McGucket's 'just in case'." I said, trying to remember. I noticed Pacifica cringing at something but instead turned to find the way into the lab part. I found the wheel and turned it, getting the hatch to open with a loud squeal. I crawled through only to freeze without pulling myself all the way though.

"Mabel, what's the hold up?" Mason asked, his voice sounding right behind me.

"It's the squish security room," I said. "And I don't remember what activated it."

"Well let me see, maybe I can figure it out."

I squished to the side of the small access way to give him room to squish next to me. He looked over the room, craning his head to take in all the symbols on every square of the room, in silence.

"You know, your butts aren't that nice to be looking at," Pacifica said, her voice coming from somewhere in the room behind us.

"I think I got it," Mason said, crawling forward. He dropped his feet out the access tunnel and turned back to face me. "Come on. Only put your feet on the tiles I do."

I nodded my head, not wanting to get squished by this room. "Why did they even build it like this?" I asked, swinging my legs forward to follow Mason. I turned around, keeping my feet on the square Mason had shown to be safe, and knelt down to poke my head through the tunnel. Pacifica was just now crawling through.

"What?" Pacifica asked, crawling on hands and knees.

"Just checking," I shrugged. I stood straight and turned back to face Mason as he moved forward. Silently and carefully we made it to the doorway on the other side of the squish room. Only when we all were in the control room did I take a breath.

"How big is this place?" Mason asked, looking through the window.

I walked over next to him and saw the four tall tubes that were cryo-chambers. "I don't know. Large enough someone could get lost," I admitted. I looked towards the decontamination closet, glad to see it still opened from when Soos and I had broke through. "You gotta flash light?" I asked, pulling out a pen light from my skirt pocket and flicking it on. Lights turning on got me to look back at the two, seeing Mason with his own pen light and Pacifica using her phone.

Mason walked ahead of us and went through the decontamination closet first with us behind him. "Dipper!? Ford!" He called out, his voice echoing through-out the cavern.

I walked away from them, wanting to make sure in person the shape shifter was still here, and peeked at the first of the four chambers. I let out a scream, and not a good one, at what I saw. In front of me, frozen and pale, was my brother. He was looking up, a hand against the glass.

Vxh, brx glgq'w klgh wkhp doo wkdw zhoo. Pdbeh wklv wlph L'oo jhw pb uhyhqjh, brx duvrq.


	21. Chapter 21 Plans

Chapter 21

Plans

"Achoo!"

"Bless you," a girl's voice said.

I opened my eyes as a shiver ran through-out me. Why was I so cold? I pulled the blanket draped over my shoulders closer. Where was I? I looked around, seeing a bookshelf with dated boxes, a map of Gravity Falls on the floor, and a gun safe. The bunker.

Sniffling next to me turned my head to see Ford sat there, his skin close to white as he rubbed the blanket around him on his nose.

"They're on their way."

I looked towards the voice and saw Mable pocketing our phone with Mason and Pacifica. "What happened?" I asked.

"You were frozen," Mason said, the three turning to me. He took a step closer, placing a hand to my forehead, and asked, "How you feeling?"

"Freezing," I admitted, my teeth chattering just for more proof.

Mason took his hand back at turned to Ford, doing the same. "What happened? Do you remember anything?"

It felt like my brain was still thawing out, it taking me a moment just to understand what Mason was asking, "Uh…" My brain stalled, trying to bring up what had happened." Sue!" I exclaimed, remembering.

"Sue did this?" Pacifica asked. "Who's Sue?"

"That other demon," Mable offered.

"Why?" Mason asked.

I squinted my eyes together, trying to remember. "Something about Bill."

"She wants to prevent Bill from coming back," Ford said.

I looked up, surprised he wasn't shivering. He rubbed his nose again before sneezing into his blanket.

"Well then why kidnap you?" Pacifica asked. "We don't want Bill back anymore then she does."

"I think she might fear him," Ford offered.

I looked up, something sparking in my memory. Something that happened and didn't happen all at the same time. "Mabel?" I started, getting my sister to look at me. "Do you remember that thing with Blenden last summer?"

"You mean the Globnor or the pirate thing or when he-"

"The pirate thing," I interrupted.

She nodded her head with a "duh" expression on her face.

"The axolotl found us," I said, closing my eyes as I tried to keep hold of this memory. "Saw his own dimension burn, misses home, but can't return. Says he's happy, he's a liar. Blames the arson for the fire."

"You've talked to the axolotl?!" Ford asked.

I opened my eyes and looked up at him, giving him a nod. "Yeah, but it didn't happen? I'm not quite sure."

"The axolotl lives outside time and space, and more powerful than Time Baby," Ford offered. "That'd be why you don't fully remember it. But he said all that?"

"When I asked him about Bill," I nodded my head.

"But if Sue's the arson, Bill could still be after his own revenge," Mason said. "That could be why she doesn't want him back to the point of getting rid of you two."

"Ford? Dipper?" McGucket's voice called just before the old man walked through the doorway with Stan right behind him.

"Glad to see you, McGucket," Ford said as the two walked over to us.

I eyed the old man as I noticed he was caring an old doctor's bag. I knew his memory had come back but it still didn't calm the nerves I had when he reached into the bag and pulled out a stethoscope.

"You three can go outside, Wendy and her friends should be here soon," Stan said.

I watched McGucket check Ford first as Mabel, Mason, and Pacifica walked out, Mabel throwing me a last look.

"Ford, why didn't you tell us?" Stan asked, once the three were out of the bunker.

"Tell you what?" Ford asked as McGucket put the stethoscope to his back.

"Breathe," McGucket ordered.

"That you two have pieces of Bill in you," Stan said.

"Breathe," McGucket ordered again after moving the piece.

Ford took a moment before answering his brother. "I wasn't even sure until Sue did what she did last night," he admitted. "She just gave me more proof."

"So do you have a way of getting rid of him?" Stan asked.

"I'm working on it," Ford said.

"Breathe."

Ford did as ordered before adding, "Given a few days, I should have it operational."

The old man went back to his bag and pulled out a thermometer and handed it to Ford. "Here."

Ford put it in his mouth as McGucket turned to me. He leaned over and put the stethoscope to my back before ordering, "Breathe."

I took a deep breath and watched as Stan turned to take in the bunker. He took a step to the food and pulled out a box to look inside.

"Breathe," McGucket ordered after moving the bell end over my back.

I did as asked as Stan asked, "What, no canned meat?"

"There should be, check the bottom," McGucket said before ordering me to "Breathe" once more. McGucket's eyes went wide, getting me to panic. The old man turned around and yelled, "You better not eat any o' that!"

Stan quickly shoved the contents back into the box and shoved it on the shelf it belonged. He turned to look at McGucket, only turning his eyes to anything but the old man.

McGucket turned back to me, placing the stethoscope on my chest and ordered again "Breathe." I did so, getting a nod from McGucket before he pulled it away. He went back to his bag, putting the stethoscope up and pulled out another thermometer. He handed it to me just as Ford's let out a beep, getting McGucket's attention. He took it from my great uncle, looking it over, and mumbled, "Low, but reasonable."

I tucked the thermometer under my tongue and pulled my blanket closer as a shiver ran through my spine.

"What we need to focus on now is how to trap Sue," Ford said now that he was able to speak.

"Yeah, Stan told me we needed to draw up some eye?" McGucket asked, pulling out alcohol from his bag and a cloth. He poured some of the clear liquid on the cloth before cleaning Ford's thermometer.

Ford started to go over it again but how to get Sue where we want her? She wouldn't be stupid enough to fall for a normal trick, so using Ford or me for bait, not sure if I'd wanna _be_ bait really, I doubt she'd fall for that. What could be something she wouldn't be able to resist? My eyes widened, not even able to think the name. I felt my heart go faster but it was the only thing I could think of that would work. And it would require making a deal with _him._

"Dipper?"

I looked up to see the three old men looking at me, concern on their faces.

I realized the thermometer had been beeping and pulled it out, handing it to McGucket. He looked it over as I said, "What if… we brought Bill back to life," not believing the words coming out of my own mouth. "To lure Sue to the eye."

"The kid's lost it," Stan said, turning around as he put his hand to his head.

"Dipper. Bring Bill back?" Ford asked, shock on his face.

Stan turned back around, dropping his hand, as he said, "Dipper, did she mess with your memory? We aren't going to just _bring him back_."

I noticed McGucket hadn't responded, only froze with fear on his face. I looked back at my great uncles and offered, "Well she clearly fears him too. And if she's the arson, he would want to get his revenge." My heart kept pounding but I kept speaking. "If anything, I could make a de-"

"No." Ford stopped me. I looked up, surprised to see his so furious. He took a moment, breathing deep enough I could see his nostrils flare as he tried to control his emotions. I commend you for thinking out of the box but Bill is out of the question."

"I… I hate the idea as much as the rest of you, but…" McGucket started, his knee bouncing as he twisted his thumbs, "is there any other way of capturing Sue?"

Stan looked over at Ford as Ford dropped his hands, showing me the strange star tattoo on the side of his neck as the blanket shifted, and said, "We'll keep that as a last resort." He turned to me, his face hardened, as he added, "And you are _not_ making a deal with him."

I nodded my head. I knew that part had been stupid, shoot, the whole idea was borderline insane.

"I wish we knew more about how Sue attacked," Stan said.

"Mason might know," I said. "He did live where she rued."

"We'll get you two back to the shack and then you can work out a plan," Stan said, holding out a hand to his brother.

Ford took the hand and helped himself up to his feet with a smile.

Qciay qtly tpnk? Zsnme Qaeaee zpd lbki sif exyd. Omi tt gszps n uglzl aspa, nf jybrdxpvntap tugjrhg, ld nrrsip sbetehvfv ehnl hlvrk ise jggwd.


	22. Chapter 22 Eksusha

Chapter 22

Eksusha

"My counterpart never specified what to draw the eye in, did he?" Ford asked as Mason, Mabel, and I watched him carefully bag up the needed rocks.

I picked up the angel that had made its home on the TV and quickly put it behind the old tube device, in the wires. This angel war was getting out of hand.

"No, I don't think so," Mason offered. "I think he might've said something about chalking it out on the floor though."

"Learned from past experience, no demon summoning in the house," Ford said, grabbing the handles of the plastic bag. He walked into the kitchen and grabbed a can off the counter. "Mabel, pink or orange?"

"Pink. Wait, why?"

"Spray paint," Ford said, turning as he showed us the can in his hand.

"Don't give it to her!" I exclaimed as I heard Mason say something similar.

"Oh, come on, bros! That was one time," Mabel whined.

I noticed Ford's face go from surprise to humor as he watched us. "Do I want to ask?"

"What where we, three?" I asked, looking over at Mason.

"Three or four, it was before we moved," Mason offered.

"Mom had been spray painting some pots outside for some project."

"She was making turtles," Mason interjected.

"It was green paint, wasn't it?" I asked, trying to recall that far back. "Mom went inside and Mabel went crazy with the pain."

"I know I ended up sprayed more than the swing set," Mason added.

"Us and Pikme."

"I wanted a green cat and thought you'd look good green too," Mabel defended.

Ford smiled at us before saying, "Ok, noted: Mabel doesn't get the paint. Can you get the box of candles from my room? I left them on my bed."

"I will," Mabel called out, rushing down the hall. Not even a moment passed before she came back with a small box in her hands.

"So where are we gonna create the eye?" I asked as Ford handed me the bag of rocks and Mason the can of spray paint.

Ford grabbed the fourth journal off the table and walked between Mason and myself, leading us out of the shack. "There's a clearing just to the east of here that is perfect."

"Oh, the one Gidian summoned Bill in," I said, knowing the clearing he was talking about.

Ford looked down at me and asked, "Bill was summoned _that_ close to the shack?"

I nodded my head.

Ford turned back to watching where he put his feet as we left the gravel parking lot.

"Hey Mabel," Mason started.

"Hum?"

"You wouldn't happen to still have that pink and white dog?"

"Cloud? Yeah, but he's back in California," Mabel offered. "Why?"

"Uh, just wondering," Mason said, his free hand playing with the heart always around his neck.

Mabel glanced over at me, getting me to shrug. I remembered Cloud, he was one of her stuffed animals that always came back out every couple of rotations to her bed. After she had gained more than a hundred, Mom demanded she not have them all out at once so only ten or so came out every few weeks and Cloud was one of her favorites. But I never had anything to do with the small dog. I did play with a few of her animals when I was little but mostly O.G., a wolf, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

In the time it took me to go over all of this in my head we had walked to the clearing. I stopped with Ford and Mason as Mabel went out to the center and picked up a fallen stick that still held pinecones.

"I think we need to clean it up a bit, before we can put down the eye," Ford admitted, pocketing the journal in his overcoat's inside pocket before bending down to start picking up sticks.

"Should've brought a rake," Mason said, sitting down the can of paint next to a tree on the edge.

I sat the bag of rocks next to the spray can and started to work with the rest, throwing sticks and pinecones into the woods. With the four of us clearing out the clearing that was about five yards wide and maybe about six yards long it took us about fifteen minutes before Ford said it would do. I looked up at the sun to see it just barely peeking through the tops of the tree line as it went down. It felt like it had been a very long Sunday already, I let out a sigh. I followed Mabel out of the clearing and took a seat on a large root next to the tree that I had sat down the bag of rocks. In the clearing we watched as Ford, with the fourth journal in hand, black light gripped in his mouth, and pink paint can in his other hand, found his way to the exact center of the clearing. He quickly sprayed a dot at his feet and double checked the picture in the UV ink. He carefully drew a cross with the dot in the center and painted out a circle connecting the ends of the cross to each other. He looked up at the sky for a moment before going to the cross top pointing to my left and painted a semi-circle above the large circle. Walking backwards, he painted two small lines, going east of the eye before standing straight again. He closed the journal and, with the book still in hand, stretched out his back.

"Dipper, bring over the stones," Ford ordered, putting the paint can in his inside pocket.

I grabbed the bag and rose to my feet.

"Where do they go?" Mason asked, walking with me to the edge of the eye.

"One on each end of the cross, both ends of the semi-circle, and the last two on the ends of the short lines," Ford explained.

I threw a glance behind me and smiled. I saw Mabel putting something together with the pinecones we had cleared out of the way. Turning my attention back to the bag in my hand, I sat it down just outside the circle and opened it to grab a couple of the thick slabs of black stone.

"Hey, dig a small hole so they won't get moved all that easily," Mason offered, pulling out a few rocks.

"Hopefully we'll be able to use this soon, but you're right," Ford said, looking back through what was written in the journal. "Don't need any passing animal to knock away our work."

I knelt down at the north point of the cross and, sitting down the two stones I had grabbed, started pulling away at the grass with my bare hands.

"Mason, how long was Sue in charge before she… finished her work?" Ford asked, his voice coming from behind me.

"Well, she started in '84," Mason said, "so just shy of thirty years."

"Hopefully not that long here," I added.

"What _is_ the plan to get her here?" Mason asked.

I patted down the dirt around the stone I had just placed, wondering what Ford had come up with by now. I stood up and went to the right hand side of the semi-circle, knelling down again to repeat the process.

"We'll use Bill to bait her."

I almost dropped the rock in my hands, fumbling a moment before I held it tight. I turned, still on my knees, to look up at the man.

"Not that way," Ford said, eyeing me. He looked over at Mason and explained, "When we defeated Bill, his form materialized as a stone stature out in the woods, not too far from here. The idea is to take his remains and plant them here, panicking the town into believing Bill is back."

"Panicking the town?" Mason echoed.

"Yeah, Great Uncle Ford, that doesn't sound like a great idea," Mabel said, drawing my eyes over to her to see she had some hoe weaved the twigs and pinecones into a crown of sorts.

"As far as I know, we can't exactly call her up and say _Hey, we found Bill_ , and no one else is reacting. It would just tell her it's a trap," Ford explained his reasoning.

"Sure, but I think a picture would be quicker, and more proof," Mabel said.

"And where would we get a picture of him?" I asked, turning back to my work.

"Wendy has a few on her phone," Mabel said. "If she's got one that doesn't give too much away in the background, we could use that."

"When we get back to the shack, we'll ask her," Ford said, looking back at the journal.

Patting down the ground, I went back to the bag and grabbed two more, leaving the last one for Mason. I walked over to the two spots inside the circle and dropped down to my knees. Bringing Bill's statue to this clearing would be safer then bringing Bill back to life, but it wasn't going to be easy.

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AN: And we have caught up to the writer's block… I'm sorry for posting this story before I had finished it! I promise I will do my best to put up the rest of this story once I figure out how to write it.


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